Mujer Luna
The unseen dimensions of feminine experience.
A film-centered solo work that turns toward the hidden side of a woman’s inner life: what is felt but rarely shown, and what continues beyond another’s view. Mila Tina performs seated on a single electronic percussion instrument, the Wavedrum, bringing live sound into conversation with the film. Audiences watch the film as Mila Tina plays live, followed by an optional conversation.
The other side of the Moon.
What becomes of the parts of ourselves that are lived, but seldom seen?
Mujer Luna, meaning “moon woman,” dwells with what is concealed, misread or left unspoken. Tenderness, anger, desire, uncertainty and joy inhabit the same body. Their coexistence is not a contradiction to be solved; it is the substance of the work.
From the Earth, we only ever see one face of the Moon, yet it is always whole. Its “dark side” becomes a metaphor for this hidden life. Some of it stays private by choice; some resists language; some has been quieted by expectations of composure, consistency and availability.
The work asks where these experiences go when they are not expressed, and what they might become once given form.
Through film, original music and live percussion, Mila Tina creates a space to remain with them, without asking every contradiction to resolve.
On screen, the Moon moves through its phases. Beneath it, a single drum answers.
A smaller setup. Another space to explore.
Mujer Luna evolved from The Heroine’s Journey, Mila Tina’s earlier solo performance with a full standing arrangement of acoustic and electronic percussion, dance, martial arts and video.
With Mujer Luna, the focus shifted toward film and sound. Mila Tina performs seated with the Wavedrum, allowing the images and music to carry the exploration.
What had unfolded through movement across a stage could now develop through cinematic imagery, editing and musical expression. The change in format opened another way to approach the internal world at the center of the work.
The feeling came first.
The emotional and artistic impulses preceded the frameworks. As the work developed, research offered language and perspectives through which Mila Tina could understand, articulate and expand what she was creating.
Maureen Murdock’s The Heroine’s Journey: Woman’s Quest for Wholeness, explorations of feminine archetypes and the myth of Persephone became part of that inquiry. Descent, separation, return and creation offered ways to approach experiences already taking shape in the music and images.
These frameworks stay open. Every woman, stage of life and history reads them differently.
Beyond the individual.
The inquiry extends into the environments we inhabit. How much space do our relationships, workplaces and cultural expectations allow for emotional complexity, changing energy and different needs?
Mujer Luna connects the exploration of an internal world with questions about the conditions surrounding it. Wholeness involves acknowledging more of ourselves, while also considering what kinds of spaces allow that fuller expression to exist.
Where it has been shared.
The Church, Sag Harbor
Presented during Mila Tina’s artist residency, January 30–February 19, 2025.
The film and live performance opened a conversation about the heroine’s journey, feminine archetypes, rhythm, cycles and the body. Audience questions brought further perspectives on creativity, aging, emotional expression and the relationship between experience and research.
Suffolk Theater, Riverhead
A multimedia opening built around Mila Tina’s reworking of “Gracias a la Vida,” with guest Carolina Oliveros.
Read about the Pachanga →More than what we see.
Mujer Luna continues to evolve through artistic practice, research and conversation.
The Moon offers an image for that ongoing inquiry: what is visible never exhausts what is there.