Opening: Thursday June 15th
Santiago gets up very early in his workshop in the town of Pevas on the banks of the Ampiyacú River, at the mouth of the Amazon. Wielding his machete, he sets out in search of llanchama and natural dyes. He walks in silence. He stops every few minutes when something catches his attention. At this time of the morning, the bustle of the jungle is incessant: insects, frogs, birds, leaves, trees, streams, all welcome the new day. Santiago is a small creature in that vast world. He pauses. He looks this way and that. In the dense forest, among hundreds of trees and shades of green, he finds one of the seven varieties of renaco whose bark he will later transform into a vegetable fabric: "llanchama". It will take him a week to prepare the support and the natural dyes. This arduous task, which requires a lot of patience and expertise, will be very rewarding.
The nights are short when we talk about what and why to paint. We think of myths, stories, fables, tales, visions, dreams, experiences, realities, frustrations, hopes and illusions. It is time for jokes and laughter in the darkness of this summer. In the evenings we turn to Grandfather Tobacco to think clearly, to cool our thoughts and to be able to do a good job. This is how paintings like Shiminbro, the Sound Maker - a creature that came to Santiago's mind by searching and questioning the origin of silence - are created.
The Rubber Ball is a reminder that in the 18th century, before the arrival of white people, the Uitotos were already aware of the benefits of this tree. The clans carried out various social activities in which they were rewarded with abundant food, drink, tobacco, and coca. This unfortunately would not last forever, as the inexorable advent of modernity unveiled its fiercest and most ruthless face: in a few years we were converted into the mere property and slaves of the whites, and the territories were plundered by external agents.
Santiago's painting plays an important role in these territories of myths and resistance since, by resorting to the knowledge of his ancestors, he engages in a dialogue with the present. He seeks to generate concepts, raise questions, and create new ways of understanding reality, the world we all inhabit. Rember Yahuarcani
Image: Photograph by Manuel Guardia
