Narratives and Inscriptions of the Gran Chaco
October 23, 2020–January 24, 2021
Berlin 10115
Germany
Hours: Tuesday–Wednesday and Friday–Sunday 2–6pm
Thursday 2–8pm
This exhibition project began its journey in Tartagal, a small city in the far north of Argentina. The city has 80,000 inhabitants, including seven communities of pueblos originarios and non-indigenous people of diverse origins and backgrounds. In this territory, a border enclave where present and past coexist, memories and resistance entwine. The confrontation between different ways of understanding nature implies a dispute for the future—should it be treated as a productive resource or as a whole of which human beings are part?
The Listening and the Winds brings together craftswomen, artists, communicators and researchers. Engaging in a dialogue about diverse forms of knowledge and practice, they propose that recognition and understanding are implicit in processes of decolonization.
Women are the main actors in this scenario of open questions. They use earth materials to create forms and discourses; they raise spoken words and translate the language of living beings and that of their ancestors. They know that their ancestor’s voices are carried by the winds. In this project, we present fragments of these activities and their material outcomes: textiles, ceramics, drawings, soundscapes and audiovisual pieces.
This exhibition brings together the pueblos originarios of Gran Chaco with people who are unable to define themselves by their origins, trees, animals and all that is unfathomable yet still present. All forms of time merge here, and the winds bring songs chanted in different languages that lay claim to subjugated territories and new forms of coexistence.
Curated by Andrea Fernández. With works by: the Orembiapo Maipora collective in collaboration with Florencia Califano; the Thañí collective in collaboration with Guido Yannitto; the archive of the Radio Comunitaria La Voz Indígena, based on research by Mariana Ortega in collaboration with Daniela Seggiaro and Cecilia Castro; Brayan Sticks in collaboration with Taller de Memoria Étnica and Instituto Terciario Nº 6029 Tartagal, Salta, Argentina; Carlos “Pajita” García Bes.
The ifa Gallery Berlin invites visitors to participate in a thematic discourse on the environment. The final phase of the Untie to Tie project introduces works by international artists who deal with questions of how we can learn from communities worldwide to foster a new, more responsible relationship with the environment.
