“The descent of the Devils of Uquía ; Andean Carnival ”

Currently selected and exhibited at the #109 Edition of the National Visual Arts Hall 2021 (Riobamba 985, CABA) from September 2 to October 31, 2021

📍 Days and hours: Thursday to Sunday from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
📍 Visit without prior reservation: entry by order of arrival.

As I think a people’s customs are its essence, I feel motivated to photographing a typical ritual from my place. We know the ritual is renewed by its celebration because our Andean man gets immortalised in the ceremony. Sabemos que el rito se renueva a través de su celebración, pues nuestro hombre andino se inmortaliza en la ceremonia.  

The downhill coming of the demons gives us the gift of the moment when the eye stops seeing to register the breath of the earth. The performance chooses the natural environment to show the relationship with the “Pacha” (Earth), considered sacred.  The costumes of the demons gather masks, images, embroideries and pinned badges, all of it in the colours that mean Carnival. This foreign tradition later acquired its characteristic shades and shape to become an expression of our aboriginal people, a mixture of Spanish and “Criollo” (belonging to the homeland).

I feel some pictures take us to the ancestral, understood as our ancestors taking care of us from the high and symbolising the sacred. Then photography leads us to the ritual itself which mix history and present.

Credits:
Curator: Plastic Artist Pablo Curuchet
Texts: Prof. Jorgelina Balut
Translation: Prof. María Luisa Pemberton.