Inner Sun

Daniel Godínez Nivón is a visual artist whose work explores the ties between dreaming, community, and the natural world, asking how dreams can illuminate environmental crises and spark collective imagination. Through film, sound, drawing and discussion, he examines how knowledge is shared through dreams, experimenting with collective dreaming, and exploring what could happen if we remember how to dream more.

His practice is grounded in tequio—a form of collective work rooted in Indigenous communities, especially in Oaxaca, Mexico, with his work (like his alternative publication project Tequiografias) often foregrounding local and indigenous knowledge and culture, and the dreams of other beings.

Daniel worked with ATLAS throughout 2026 to develop a new series of events and artworks across Skye and Raasay, giving the opportunity to learn more about his practice and to share stories about dreaming, plants and birds. Eala-bhì or St John’s Wort was in bloom across Skye and Raasay during his first visit, a plant that has many uses in traditional Highland medicine, as an anti-depressant and anti-inflammatory – also said to heal wounds, and keep evil spirits at bay. A series of gatherings and artworks took place in March inspired by this encounter, bringing together histories of herbal medicine in the Highlands, and songs, stories, plants, and other associations with dreams and visions.

In turn, these gatherings and sharings inspired Inner Sun: Dreaming Back, an immersive exhibition by Mexican artist Daniel Godínez Nivón, filling the village Hall in Raasay. The exhibition included drawing, poetry, and a huge fabric installation, as well as activities and aids for remembering how to dream.

As an artist, he is interested in what happens when we talk about our dreams more – and what dreams reveal about our connection to the environment, culture, tradition, the deep past, and each other. The Dreaming Back exhibition brought together these ideas in a sensory environment of sound, scent and soft exploration.