Even before viewers step into the single gallery that houses the various entities and beings that constitute En el principio (In the beginning)<\/em>, curated by Anna Burckhardt P\u00e9rez, Neville Bryan Assistant Curator of Architecture and Design, the ethereal and monumental emerald-coloured ceremonial cloth with an Egyptian blue circle draws them in from the institutionally cold design of the AIC. Like a beacon of light and life, the sand-based pigment, which represents motherhood, water, and the cosmic sky in Manto celeste<\/em> (Celestial Cloth) <\/em>(2025), grounds the exhibition while also elevating it into another sphere of existence. For the artists and their collaborators, honouring traditional uses of these materials and drawing on their sacred connections to the Colombian territory where Ko\u2019revaju communities live is a unifying force within the overall installation. The cohesiveness of this material practice, grounded in non-extractive, anti-capitalist gestures seeking to resist deforestation, urbanization, and sprawling agriculture dating back centuries, feels highly potent in this moment. Far from the United States government\u2019s recent exhortation to \u201cDrill, baby, drill\u201d is a hope that land-based and traditional practices might remind us of our responsibility to and stewardship of our one and only Mother Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
$\"\"$
En el principio (In the beginning)<\/em>
Exhibition view, Art Institute of Chicago, 2025.
Photo: courtesy of the artists<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
$\"\"$
Juliana G\u00f3ngora Rojas<\/strong>, Nance Klehm<\/strong>, & Social Ecologies<\/strong>
Piso de tierra (Earth Floor),<\/em> installation view, Art Institute of Chicago, 2025.
Photo: courtesy of the artists<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
The sculpture Piso de tierra (Earth Floor) <\/em>(2025) offers another impressive framework within which nature, craft, touch, spirituality, and culture come seamlessly into dialogue with each other. Created with local Illinois soil and clay but embedded with Egyptian blue pigment carefully introduced into the fissures of the dirt, the reddish-brown mass has the unmistakable glow of something animate. This is the same clay found metres below the modern extension of the AIC, designed by starchitect Renzo Piano in 2009. The very matter of En el principio (In the beginning)<\/em> asks viewers to rethink their relationship with preconceived notions of design and architecture. Through their use, respect, and communion with nature, the artists and their collaborators challenge industrial forms, such as sprawling buildings and manufactured objects, that distance us from primary materials. They also reframe American modernist uses of earth in land art\u2014think of Walter De Maria\u2019s Earth Room<\/em> (1971) or Robert Smithson\u2019s Earthworks<\/em> (1968)\u2014in which considerations for Indigenous sovereignty vis-\u00e0-vis territory and land-rights recognition were vacated by formalist pursuits. La palabra dulce (The<\/em> Sweet Word)<\/em> 2023\u201324), a cluster of about two dozen suspended hand-weavings made with cumare fibres and organic dyes extends this sense of connectedness among body, community, and ecology. Their tightly knit triangular woven tops have flowing tendrils that stretch to the ground, swaying gently in the air. Each one is slightly different in character, making them feel like a congregation of people. A certain form of animism captures the imagination here, a key to the exhibition\u2019s worldview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
$\"\"$
Juliana G\u00f3ngora Rojas<\/strong>, Taller Masipai<\/strong>, Juven Piranga Valencia<\/strong>, & Yinela Piranga Valencia<\/strong>
La palabra dulce (The<\/em> Sweet Word)<\/em>, 2023-24, installation view, Art Institute of Chicago, 2025.
Photo: courtesy of the artists<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
$\"\"$
Juliana G\u00f3ngora Rojas<\/strong>, Taller Masipai<\/strong>, Juven Piranga Valencia<\/strong>, & Yinela Piranga Valencia<\/strong>
Leng\u00fcitas sagradas (Blessed Little Tongues)<\/em>, 2020-24, installation views, Art Institute of Chicago, 2025.
Photos: courtesy of the artists<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
$\"\"$ <\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
$\"\"$
Juliana G\u00f3ngora Rojas<\/strong>
Cuencos de leche (Milk Vessels)<\/em>, 2021\u201324, installation view, Art Institute of Chicago, 2025.
Photo: courtesy of the artist<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Whether in Leng\u00fcitas sagradas (Blessed Little Tongues)<\/em> (2020\u201324), a series of exquisite little woven speech and taste organs made of cumare fibre, chocho seeds, and cascabel seeds, protruding from a wall, or Cuencos de leche (Milk Vessels)<\/em> (2021\u201324), a long line of palm-sized bowls made of milk, lime, and bronze, similarly jutting from a wall, G\u00f3ngora Rojas and Quintero Sep\u00falveda\u2019s installation is rich in delicate and deliberate details. Handmade objects at different scales throughout the exhibitionperform a spiritual, embodied, and material sense of unity, a holistic binding of the artists and their collaborators with the space of representation and the audience. Like a sacred site, the exhibition feels like a gift to be held and an ethos toward which to strive. The final lines of the publication accompanying the exhibition echo this sentiment, leaving the viewer with an action to be carried forward: \u201cThrough weaving, we sow and care for life. We are caretakers of life\u2014that is essential.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Art Institute of Chicago<\/strong>
March 29\u2013July 28, 2025<\/br><\/br>","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":268211,"template":"","categories":[131,884,503,892],"numeros":[],"disciplines":[],"statuts":[],"checklist":[],"auteurs":[905],"artistes":[7406,7407,7408,7409,7410,7411,7412],"thematiques":[],"type_compte-rendu":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-268226","1":"compte-rendu","2":"type-compte-rendu","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","5":"hentry","6":"category-compte-rendu","7":"category-reviews","8":"category-webzine","10":"auteurs-didier-morelli-en","11":"artistes-juliana-gongora-rojas-en","12":"artistes-juven-piranga-valencia-en","13":"artistes-matias-quintero-sepulveda-en","14":"artistes-nance-klehm-en","15":"artistes-social-ecologies-en","16":"artistes-taller-masipai-en","17":"artistes-yinela-piranga-valencia-en"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/compte-rendu\/268226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/compte-rendu"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/compte-rendu"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268226"},{"taxonomy":"numeros","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/numeros?post=268226"},{"taxonomy":"disciplines","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/disciplines?post=268226"},{"taxonomy":"statuts","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/statuts?post=268226"},{"taxonomy":"checklist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/checklist?post=268226"},{"taxonomy":"auteurs","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/auteurs?post=268226"},{"taxonomy":"artistes","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artistes?post=268226"},{"taxonomy":"thematiques","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thematiques?post=268226"},{"taxonomy":"type_compte-rendu","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/type_compte-rendu?post=268226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}