Santiago Yahuarcani

Born 1960 | Pucaurquillo
Lives and works Pebas

In his paintings, Santiago Yahuarcani seeks to preserve the knowledge system of the Huitoto people of southern Colombia and Peru and depict the ongoing trauma of Indigenous lives that have experienced dislocation, colonisation, and genocide. For the 14th Gwangju Biennale, Yahuarcani presents Huitoto Cosmovision (Cosmovisión Huitoto) 2022, a painting made with natural dye on connected sheets of parchment created from the inner bark of fig trees. The painting is filled with iconographies that represent various aspects of Huitoto lives, such as their belief system that features numerous gods, mythical narratives on the origin of fish, and contemporary surroundings in which urban landscapes infiltrate the Amazon forest. By connecting these imageries within a single picture plane without a distinct hierarchy, Yahuarcani renders the painting into an embodiment of the complex multiplicities of Huitoto existence in the present moment.

Santiago Yahuarcani, Huitoto Cosmovision (Cosmovisión Huitoto) 2022. Natural dyes and paint on tree bark. 210×410cm. Courtesy the artist and CRISIS Gallery, Supported by the Embassy of Peru in the Republic of Korea. Installation view, 14th Gwangju Biennale (2023). Image courtesy Gwangju Biennale Foundation. Photo: glimworkers