Period
2012
Proposed by
Helena Producciones
Location
Guajira
About the project
In the desert, there are no borders. The project, Luma: Communal House for the Development of the Word and the Exchange of ancestral knowledge, is located in the Guajira in the extreme north of the Colombian Caribbean, where the Wayúu indigenous community resides since ancient times, inhabitants of the desert who represent 20% of the total indigenous population in Colombia. The project begins with the construction of a Luma/Enramada, ancestral communal house, without walls, where the air flows freely. Small (have dimensions of 6 x 6 meters), not very high (1.80 m maximum) with the roof almost flat. In them, the Wayúus hang their chinchorros (hammocks) to receive visitors, perform their traditional ceremonies and celebrate their festivities.
Our project raises an exchange of knowledge, proposing to restore the power of the spoken word. We will resort to a Palabrero or Putchipu’u: intermediary, mediator or bearer of messages (Wayúu Eusebio Siosi Artist) building a bridge between the community and the participants of the project or alijuna (no wayúu). As a starting point, we will propose three thematic axes of great importance for the Wayúu community: Jamü (Hungry) Wüin (Water), Olu (Border), which represent great threats to the survival of the community. We will organize interdisciplinary meetings with three Colombian artists invited: Carolina Caicedo, María Buenaventura, Oscar Leone whose work directly addresses the aforementioned issues. With these meetings, the project seeks to contextualize the current situation of the Wayúu community, as well as propose models that may become; without the pretension of trying to transform reality, solutions that starting from the dialogue between generally separated knowledge, can find a common point between the ancestral and the contemporary through the spoken word.
La Usurpadora is composed of Maria Rueda & Mario Llanos.
Links
External links
About the artist
La Usurpadora (The Usurper) is an independent art space and Residence program created in Puerto Colombia (Atlántico). La Usurpadora emerges as a platform of visualization in the absence of spaces for local and regional artists to disseminate their work, a fundamental aspect of the project relies on the research and the rescue of regional artists that used to be an important benchmark in the arts in the country.
