Chiquitania

"Ancient cultures inspire to look at modernity with identity"

Gallery Exhibition Hotel Los Tajibos, Santa Cruz, Bolivia, 2016.

Raúl Otero Reich House of Culture Exhibition, Santa Cruz, Bolivia, 2017.

Art Space Exhibition Manzana 1, Santa Cruz, Bolivia 2018.

The research carried out between 2013 and 2019 in 10 mission towns in the Chiquitania region, in Bolivia, on the border with Brazil, was a source of inspiration for several exhibitions that revalue the native with a contemporary touch, rescuing the essence of the Chiquitano culture.

In the middle of the jungle, the Jesuit missions in South America, declared by UNESCO as Cultural Heritage of Humanity, date back to the 17th century, covering Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil and Bolivia, with more than 40 communities or reductions with a cultural legacy with indigenous roots from the original peoples that inhabit these areas and were later evangelized by the Jesuits.

In these latitudes, there are towns in the middle of the Chiquitano Dry Forest, which preserve the identity of the region in their built temples for more than 300 years, they keep a musical archive with approximately three thousand scores of baroque missionary music, many of them written by indigenous people, and their traditions and rituals maintain the essence of the indigenous worldview of respect and harmony with nature.

Globalization and migration makes these generations no longer sure of their identity, so they are constantly looking for a meaningful way to live, this project is a proposala look at modernity with identity, to value and resignify with a different plastic, the essence of a town that fights not to be forgotten. On many occasions, music and dance are part of the process and the result, in a contemporary way.

Cena Chiquitana / acrílico / 150x220 cm / 2017

Después de una tormenta / acrílico / 75x95 cm / 2017

Sinfonía / acrílico / 145x196 cm / 2020

Cena Chiquitana / acrílico / 150x220 cm / 2017

ABUELO CHIQUITANO

It was a cold early morning in July when I met the Abuelo Chiquitano, a character with a peculiar, friendly and picaresque personality, whose origin is unknown, although they believe that the masks were used by the indigenous people as a satire on the Spanish, because they resisted being evangelized. Currently the masks are used in the festivities of San José de Chiquitos in May and Santiago de Chiquitos in July.

El Abuelo Chiquitano was the first character to invade my canvas, with a different plastic, because I not only captured the mask but the personality and spirit behind it, in each work adopts its own personality, its expression, his features and his look are given spontaneously.

Acogida chiquitana / acrílico / 140x200 cm / 2019

Adios nonino / acrílico / 85,5x155 cm / 2020

Esencia cautivadora / acrílico / 130x195 cm / 2016

Acogida chiquitana / acrílico / 140x200 cm / 2019

YARITUSES

A ritual of the Piñoka people who inhabited what is now San Javier in Chiquitania, whose origin dates back to pre-Columbian times, was performed in honor of the god Piyo to ask for and thank for the good hunting and harvest, as a sign of reciprocity and harmony with nature. Later, with the arrival of the Jesuits, a syncretism with the Catholic religion occurs and it becomes in honor of Saint Peter and Saint Paul.

I had the opportunity to follow the process of declaring this ritual as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Bolivia, to live with its friendly people e to contribute with the pictorial records of the ritual. The worldview was the engine of my creative process, to connect today's society with its origins and remember the ancestral wisdom of ancient peoples who lived in harmony and total respect for nature.