In In the Air a machine blows soap bubbles into an empty room. The water in the soap bubbles comes from a morgue; it was used to clean dead bodies before autopsy. Although the water has been disinfected, and this information is clearly displayed in the exhibition space, the way the soap bubbles are perceived before and after one reads the short text about the water’s origin, is the difference between a living body and a corpse. As a traditional symbol of Vanitas, a reminder of the transitory nature of life, and a pictorial depiction of the ‘homo bulla’, the soap bubble takes a drastic turn in Teresa Margolles’ installation. Ethereal beauty is turned into horror. Human transience and the serial processing of dead bodies in the Mexico City morgues, often due to high crime rates and premature death, are inscribed in the ‘material’.