EDGAR CALEL QUESTIONS THE FETICHISMS AROUND INDIGENEITY
The artista exhibits Pa tu run ché (From the treetop) in Proyectos Ultravioleta, Guatemala City.
Pa tu run ché (From the treetop) is Edgar Calel’s first solo show at Proyectos Ultravioleta, showcasing new and recent works across a variety of media which include painting, sculpture, textile, video and installation, all of which evoke the traditions and beliefs of the Maya Kaqchikel Cosmovision.
His works offer an opportunity to question the expectations around contemporary representations of indigeneity, evidencing the mechanisms of systemic racism and discrimination directed at the indigenous people of Guatemala, over many centuries.
One of the main themes in the exhibition is the Kit Kit Kit: the onomatopoeic sound that his grandmother would make in Chi Xot (Comalapa) to call the birds in order to feed them maize. Representing this theme, one can identify a series of embroideries the atist made together with his mother and sisters in which the visual elements of the Kit Kit Kit serve as a starting point but are later deconstructed to make a new series of abstract compositions titled ‘Anatomies of a Song’. Another creation regarding the theme is a mural painted with clay directly onto the exterior walls and windows of the gallery’s space. This particular mural makes a direct reference to the mountainous views that surround the artist’s hometown, offering a bird’s eye view of the mountains themselves. It is also painted with clay sourced from those specific mountains.
-
Pa ru tun che’ (Desde la copa de un árbol), 2021 . Vista de exhibición. Proyectos Ultravioleta, Ciudad de Guatemala
-
Pa ru tun che’ (Desde la copa de un árbol), 2021 . Vista de exhibición. Proyectos Ultravioleta, Ciudad de Guatemala
-
Pa ru tun che’ (Desde la copa de un árbol), 2021 . Vista de exhibición. Proyectos Ultravioleta, Ciudad de Guatemala
-
Pa ru tun che’ (Desde la copa de un árbol), 2021 . Vista de exhibición. Proyectos Ultravioleta, Ciudad de Guatemala
-
Pa ru tun che’ (Desde la copa de un árbol), 2021 . Vista de exhibición. Proyectos Ultravioleta, Ciudad de Guatemala
Olivia Ardui wrote about Calel for tropical papers, “Performances, installations, paintings, drawings by Kaqchikel artist Edgar Calel evoke memories of his family and pay homage to the indigenous communities of the midwestern highlands of Guatemala. His works can be understood as visual chants, embodied poems or as Naoj, closest concept related to art in the Mayan language spoken in the artist’s hometown San Juan Comalapa, encompassing the broader scope of «knowledge-wisdom-understanding».”
-
Pa ru tun che’ (Desde la copa de un árbol), 2021 . Vista de exhibición. Proyectos Ultravioleta, Ciudad de Guatemala
-
Pa ru tun che’ (Desde la copa de un árbol), 2021 . Vista de exhibición. Proyectos Ultravioleta, Ciudad de Guatemala
-
Pa ru tun che’ (Desde la copa de un árbol), 2021 . Vista de exhibición. Proyectos Ultravioleta, Ciudad de Guatemala
-
Pa ru tun che’ (Desde la copa de un árbol), 2021 . Vista de exhibición. Proyectos Ultravioleta, Ciudad de Guatemala
-
Pa ru tun che’ (Desde la copa de un árbol), 2021 . Vista de exhibición. Proyectos Ultravioleta, Ciudad de Guatemala
Edgar Calel (1987) lives and works in San Juan Comalapa, Guatemala. His recent shows include the 11th Berlin Biennale (2020), Continuous Fire | Feu continuel, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario (2019) and Virginia Pérez-Ratton. Centroamérica: deseo de lugar (desire for place), MUAC Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City (2019). His works are part of the collections of Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain; Fundación TEOR/ética, San Jose, Costa Rica, and Fundación Demolición/Construcción, Córdoba, Argentina.
Related Topics
May interest you
PAMM INAUGURATES AN EXHIBITION BY FELIPE MUJICA IN COLLABORATION WITH THE MICCOSUKEE TRIBE IN SOUTH FLORIDA
Felipe Mujica: The Swaying Motion on the Bank of the River Falls highlights the ecological and cultural diversity of South Florida in collaboration with the Miccosukee tribe. It features an installation of over 20 new fabric panels, or “curtains,” that spatially interact with the museum as well as function as visual, tactile and conceptual surfaces of inclusion, dialogue, specifically with the tradition of Patchwork of the Miccosukee Tribe. The project is the result of a years-long collaboration between the Chilean artist and Khadijah Cypress, a Miccosukee artisan.
PAZ ERRÁZURIZ: THE GREATNESS OF THE MARGIN
Probably anyone who is interested in the visual arts within the Latin American scene will be familiar with the work of the Chilean artist Paz Errázuriz. Her impressive work is characterized, above all, in working, through photography, themes linked to oblivion, marginality and exclusion, showing a particular interest in portraying those people that society, for various reasons, has left aside. This year, Errázuriz took a privileged spot at the 22nd Paiz Perdidos Art Biennial Perdidos. en Medio. Juntos. (Lost. In Between. Together) and she presents during the months of May and June a solo exhibition entitled La grandeza del margen (The Greatness of the Margin). From this exhibition, I find especially notable the Trans Guatemala (2020) and Sepur Zarco (2020) series, two unpublished series where problems of great contingency are evident.
"IN THIS BIENNIAL, ART HAS THE ROLE OF BREAKING THE ESTABLISHED SILENCE." INTERVIEW WITH ALEXIA TALA
Alexia Tala is curator of the 22nd Bienal de Arte Paiz that is taking place in Guatemala until June 7. The Biennial of Arte Paiz Guatemala is the most important in the country and the oldest in Latin America.
ADRIANA VAREJÃO EXPLORES COLONIALISM THROUGH AESTHETIC SYNCRETISM AT GAGOSIAN NEW YORK
Varejão’s rich and diverse artistic oeuvre embodies the mythic pluralism of Brazilian identity and the fraught social, cultural, and aesthetic interactions that engendered it. Living and working in Rio de Janeiro, she draws upon the potent visual legacy of colonial histories and transnational exchange, creating confluent forms that expose the multivalent nature of memory and representation.
NOCTURNAL MAPS TO THINK LATIN AMERICA - COLLABORATIVE EXHIBITION BETWEEN VIGIL GONZALES AND ESPACIO EL DORADO
The exhibition, at the Vigil Gonzales gallery in Valle Sagrado, brings together the work of seven Latin American artists who question the generalizations imposed on the countries and cultures of their region, and address issues such as politics, neoliberalism, and the art market.
BIENALSUR INAUGURATES ITS CARTOGRAPHY OF EXPANDED ACTIVITIES
The third edition of the Bienal Internacional de Arte Contemporáneo del Sur (BIENALSUR) organized by the National University of Tres de Febrero (UNTREF), an Argentine public university, will take place until December 2021 in more than 120 venues in 50 cities in 23 countries and the Vatican, with the participation of around 400 artists of various nationalities and different backgrounds.
