Ribboning the River

Calca, Cusco (Peru) 2023
Inkariy Museum
Soft sculpture in white cotton 5 m long x 2 m wide x 70 cm high / Barley seeds / Video performance, full-color image with audio.
Duration: 8 min 37 s.

This piece is inspired by Andean cultural tradition, which strengthens community ties and preserves cultural practices in Peru. It is presented as a metaphor for Peruvian ancestral rites related to water, rooted generation after generation through festivities and worship. I present a living sculptural body cradled by the wind, which over the course of a month reveals various facets related to the life cycle, cultural values, collective consciousness, representation of the cosmic vision of the Andean world, and the implantation of our conscious connection with the identity legacy and the environment we inhabit.

Body to Body

Peru 2022
Series of performative works / Video performance
3 performances documented in different locations of the Peruvian territory

The cosmic vision of the Andean world is a cultural heritage and tradition that, despite attempts to eradicate it, adapted and persisted through oral tradition as a collective awareness of our material, physical, and spiritual environment. The pursuit of mysteries such as the meaning of life and death are topics that have troubled humanity for a long time, so the body has been a fundamental tool in channeling or containing these quests.

Based on this concept, working on this artistic proposal through bodily language is to internalize and externalize factors implicit in the landscape, such as climate, time, and ritual, since remaining in contact with a body other than mine with its own autonomy that chronologically marks a lapse with its flow, which seeps and filters without measure dissolving me into a fragment of that great vastness, which frames an image of a territorial and social context; it is a mechanism for understanding the identity values and religious constructs of this geographic space.

The essence of the Andes is to give a kamac (spirit) to everything that surrounds us, and this is why speaking with plants, animals, water, air, earth, and fire is a naturally habitual practice for these societies; in such a way that this work presents those relationships of reverie, surrealism, and body-to-body dialogue that listens, advises, and consoles.

Staying Upright

Pasto, Colombia 2021
Installation / 900 wild grass spikes
Dimensions: 4 x 3 meters, spikes 50 cm high
Link to see work 
 
 

The material composition of this piece stimulates sensorially and evokes in the viewer the immersion of life forms that survive amidst the urban environment, bodies that adapt and thrive amid environmental impact. Denoting survival capabilities in adverse conditions, which engage with concepts such as invasion, vulnerability, and instability of the surfaces on which they are anchored.

Singing to the River

Pasto, Colombia 2021
Cultural Area Biblioteca Banco de la República, Regional Image 9
Video art / Black and white film
Duration: 1 minute 50 seconds
Link to watch video

The conceptual framework of this video art is to establish a meeting of perspectives on the ideal of development. Image and sound confront each other, as this panorama records a landscape of the Ecuadorian Amazon jungle (Upano River) that has been harmed by mining. The Shuar chant in the background, performed by Churubia, an indigenous leader based on cosmological knowledge, invokes Arutam (god who lives in the sacred Tuna waterfall). With this chant, the gods of water are asked for resistance and strength. In this way, political and power relations are established, as knowledge and wisdom manifest themselves differently.

While some people proceed under the notion of economic growth through the excessive exploitation of nature, other communities compose poems, songs, and mythologies as a means to transcend and preserve for future generations the legacy of a living nature treated through dialogue, care, and affection. It's as if mining or the construction of hydroelectric dams, besides being a means of obtaining economic gains, aims to control the quality of life and dominate the thoughts and time of others, as it encourages extreme consumerism and completely denies the value of the habitat, and that which truly doesn't need to be exploited or mutilated, offering a lifestyle that has managed to enslave and obscure the true ideals of human existence.

The world in a strainer

Pasto, Colombia 2020
Video art / Black and white film / Metal strainer hand-embroidered with black thread
Duration: 0:50
Link to watch video 

A strainer is an object used to separate or dissect two compounds, typically a liquid from a solid. This object, intervened with thread in which a recognizable image for all (world map) has been hand-embroidered, engages in contradictory assessments such as absorption and filtration, fragility and hardness. Consequently, the conceptual framework of this performative object proposal is a reflection on life and the unpredictability of death. The certainty of life's uncerta inty is being able to see how it gradually filters, disseminates, spreads, progresses, and fades over time.

Darkness is the absence of light (Reminiscing and reestablishing bonds)

Pasto, Colombia 2021
A proposal for the Cultural Submanagement of the Banco de la República de Colombia during the pandemic
Steps to perform this piece: Here
Spatial project / Freehand drawing / 7 candles / 7 white acetates and black vinyl
Dimensions: 77 cm long x 65 cm wide

"For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love."

Carl Sagan

Reflecting on the experience endured during the Covid-19 pandemic, which led us to opt for confinement as a precautionary measure to prevent its spread, solidified the idea that social collectivity is necessary and that coming together through dialogue entails observing and living with attention. Memory, as a capacity of memory, allows us to retain and bring back past experiences to the present.

This intervention, which utilizes public space as an exhibition hall, proposes closeness, gathering, and mutual recognition. Therefore, taking the family album as a reference, an archive or treasure trove of memory of significant episodes that transport us to moments we wish to make enduring. Some of these photographs are transcribed into drawings as an act of memorization, "transferring" (changing location), and publicly dignifying the re-signification of spatial contexts where image and drawing intertwine across timelines; for the past is as secure as the present.

About Water, Source of Tributaries

Mexico City, 2020
Purísima Contemporary Art
Corn Tortilla Object Book / Digital Book / Sound Memories
Object Book Dimensions: 18cm width, 24cm height, 10cm length

Before houses had aqueduct systems like the ones we know today, a public water fountain was a central place for social gathering and supply. Later, for aesthetic and ornamental purposes, these fountains became sculpted works, like artistic objects, an interesting aspect to reflect upon due to their intersection between art and daily life in public space.

This piece not only challenges the conventional perception of these architectural ensembles in cities but also offers a new way to appreciate the spatial boundaries that blur for those who pass near these volumetric creations, becoming involuntary actors in scenes that, at first glance, seem natural, but upon closer inspection, turn out to be atypical. These drawings are fragments of micro-stories transferred onto corn tortillas, a gastronomic support that forms an ephemeral culinary manuscript of historical, economic, traditional, and cultural significance.

Salt-Exit

Cuenca, Ecuador 2020
Regressive Basin 321 Zero, Emergency Exit
Exhibition Room Intervention / Salt
Variable Dimensions

How many thoughts cross your mind as you walk or explore a place? This act of feeling through touch and enabling dialogue leads to covering lines that don't completely disappear but become more evident, marking without demarcating, not entirely covering, as if it were a light brushstroke that, through movement, was traced like irrigation, like water, like wind. 

Over time, it floods the space, which, as initially conceived for transformation and transmutation, reconsiders the notion of the ephemeral and frames the idea of coming and going, of the trace and the vestige, as if they were waves of the sea.

(This piece is interactive, allowing access to the room, for stepping, scratching, drawing, writing with a finger, etc., thus breaking the idea of a barrier or border.) 

Dissections

Pasto, Colombia 2019
Palatine Cultural Center
Spatial / MDF Cubicle, interior with mirrors for video projection
Dimensions: 2m 2cm high x 1m 8cm wide

Rain is one of the most common yet fascinating phenomena we experience. We know it not only hydrates the soils, but each falling drop is unique and unrepeatable, formed in a different place before reaching the earth. It's possible that a raindrop formed on the other side of the continent, highlighting the complexity and beauty of its creation process. 

Attempting to decipher the language of rain and understand its origin is an inevitable task. This liquid, divided into countless bodies that fall by their own weight and merge with the soil, sculpts our geographic landscape with a precision and multiplicity that defy our understanding. This is how this experience of connection with rain is proposed, where the public can pause, observe, and immerse themselves in its fall, exploring the boundaries between the body and language. Challenging the restrictions imposed by conventional human qualities or languages; this proposal invites us to review those manifestations that transcend our traditional notion of life, exploring the vitality and presence of water in all aspects of our environment.

Invisible Bodies

Pasto, Colombia 2019
Palatino Cultural Center
Project for the research group "Muses in the Aflato" at the University of Nariño
Spatial Modality, Bodies in Adhesive Tape, Concrete Washbasins.
Variable Measurements

This artwork challenges the conventional perception of household objects by transforming them into surrealistic settings that reflect on the boundaries between the natural and the artificial. Elements such as washbasins symbolize urban spaces meant to ensure our comfort but can also be seen as exerting power over other ecosystems.

By highlighting the close relationship between the flow of water and its utilization, this work aims to emphasize and question what we define as "domestic" today. The presence of fish swimming inside these objects underscores the irony and complexity of this relationship; it represents the intrusion of habitats, as well as the need to reconsider our perceptions and practices regarding the environment. Through this installation, we are invited to rethink our role in the world and consider how our daily actions can impact ecosystems and ourselves along with them.

In the Sky and on the Ground

Ecuadorian Jungle, Macas, Ecuador 2019 
Toquilla House Public Space Intervention / Public park bench, River stones, Stencil, White paint / Video mapping 
Variable Dimensions
Link to see mapping 

A bench located in the center of the city of Macas (EC) was intervened, in an area with Wi-Fi access where many people usually sit to chat and write. I thought it would be ironic to sit on words to write more words, and the action of observing people's reactions, who omit their own native language, was also curious. The Shuar terms used are related to the fall of water and insist on the phenomenon of rain, specifically in the hydrological cycle of water that constructs the dense and humid landscape of this locality.

With the purpose of transferring the spirit of the Upano River to the city center, painted stones were extracted and placed as a trace or demarcation to the exhibition in the room, where a rainfall is projected onto tobacco and holy wood as symbols of the presence of indigenous initiation rituals and medicinal plants from the Amazon region; the concern behind this process is whether we will come to understand the alphabet of water, and if so, what would the rain tell us or whisper to us?.

Anecdotes of a Dam

Gigante - Huila, Colombia 2018 
Project within the framework of the 16th SRA 
Public Space Intervention / Creation of an informative newspaper Newspaper 
Dimensions: A4 size

This work aims to create a space for dialogue where anecdotes and stories, along with mental images of what was and what this new landscape is after the construction of a hydroelectric dam in the municipality of Gigante Huila, can be activated. Hence, the interest arises in proposing an open microphone in the main square with questions such as: Where does the water come from? What color is the water? Why is the river meandering? Why does the river have stones? However, as this dialogue unfolds, issues related to politics and concepts of "development" that affect fundamental elements for life emerge, along with archaeological findings, as well as positive and negative aspects of the dam's construction.

As an alternate approach, a newspaper is created to disseminate local information, presenting artistic challenges related to narratives of the municipality, local landscapes, mental games, illustrations, poems, and reflections that collectively stirred during this artistic residency, which was part of the 16 regional salons under the curation: "Seeing to Believe, Illusion, Suspicion, and Disenchantment."

 

Portrait of the River

Pasto, Colombia 2017 
Imperial Theater and Department of Music, Universidad de Nariño
Spatial Project / Plastic bags, nylon 
Dimensions: 1.50 meters width, 5 meters length x 1.90 meters height

Conceiving the river as an autonomous organ and thinking about drawing from an unrestricted perspective, I traverse its course without losing the connection with this cyclical, mutating, serpentine, gravity-defying line that penetrates the surface and advances with a disorder that encloses its own mysterious order . I allow myself to be captivated by its form and expression, as well as by everything that accompanies it, as water does not come alone.

This artistic cartography represents a path of revelation or detachment from the norm, as the movement of water proposes a trace based on the journey and use of memory, thus emerging this deconstruction and dislocation under the framework of a subjective nature that generates a new interpretation of the territory. As Valerio Adami states in the diary of disorder, "there are those who seek in a body the trace, and those who make a portrait of it."

 

 

Monochrome of the Pasto River

Pasto, Colombia 2015 
Palatino Cultural Center
Installation, Spatial Painting / Circle in white adhesive, 100 transparent glasses, 15 Banners, QR code map 
Dimensions: 2 meters length x 2 meters width, 20 cm height

Starting from the concept of an archive and a taxonomic study, a water monochrome of the Pasto River in the city of Pasto is proposed through expanded field painting. For this purpose, 15 strategic points on the map are intercepted, moving along the course of the river and taking water samples that are displayed in ascending color order in 100 glasses forming a monochromatic circle. This in order to sue this great problem that the water passes through and to demonstrate the state of contamination in which this tributary is found.

 

Sacred Water

Pasto, Colombia 2014

Departmental Pinacoteca

Sound Installation / Acrylic stencil on mats, baskets, glass bottle, soil

Dimensions: 2 meters length x 2 meters width

From an ethnographic research, this emphatic study is born with the intention of creating a dialogue around the magical, the spiritual, and the mystical. In the face of the deteriorated state of the earth and its natural resources, the aim is to highlight the importance of water. That's why objects are arranged to propose a parallel between two worldviews. On one hand, there's the ritual and tribute offered by pre-Hispanic cultures, and on the other, the ritual of Christianity. In both situations, water is presented as a receptive being and a carrier of memory.

Within this social context, some believe that holy water is only found in places where there is a congregation of any religious order. However, it must be acknowledged that water in its entirety is sacred since it is the giver and carrier of life. "Holy water" is that which falls from the sky, resides in the mountains, flows in rivers, or is summoned by frogs with their croaking, a natural act to attract rain during prolonged droughts.