PACHA, LLAQTA, WASICHAY: A LATIN AMERICAN SAMPLE AT THE WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART
Pacha, Llaqta, Wasichay: Indigenous Space, Modern Architecture, New Art is a collective exhibition of Latin American art at the Whitney Museum of American Art that explores the relationship between indigenous and vernacular notions of construction, land, space and cosmology and the influence they have had on the history of modern and contemporary art and architecture in the Americas. It opens tomorrow.
The exhibition investigates contemporary art practices that preserve and highlight the notions and knowledge of indigenous groups about the built environment and the natural world. In relation to the title, Pacha, Llaqta, Wasch, Beyond the University of Quechua, popular language among the indigenous languages of America. Pacha denotes universe, time, space, nature or world; llaqta means place, country, community or town; and wasichay means to build or build a house.
Influenced by the richness of these concepts, the works of this collective exhibition explore the inherited conceptual frameworks of indigenous groups in Mexico and South America that include Quechua, Aymara, Maya, Aztec and Taíno, among others.
Also, the novelty is the participation of seven Latin American artists living in the United States. Why a novelty? The Whitney Museum has always been defined as the museum specialized in North American art - mainly American.
The participating artists are: William Cordova, Livia Corona Benjamín, Jorge González, Guadalupe Maravilla, Claudia Peña Salinas, Ronny Quevedo and Clarissa Tossin.
The exhibition is organized by Marcela Guerrero, assistant curator, with Alana Hernández, assistant curatorial project.
