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The exhibition opens, from September 12 to December 20, 2024, a new dialogue with the works and commitment of Frans Krajcberg, carried by the hope of a (re)connection with the Living.
We cannot live without the forest, the earth, the air, the planets... for the Huni Kuin, the term “yuxi” designates the part of magic and spirituality that emanates from words, gestures or creations and which connects beings to Nature.
With the exhibition "YUXI NUKUKUNAI, O Encontro de Almas (Meetings of Souls)", the curator and artist Kássia (Borges) Mytara highlights the evolution of the MAHKU collective (Movimento Artistico Huni Kuin), from its first drawings in 2012-2013, developed with an educational perspective, to the institutional and international recognition of MAHKU art less than ten years later: exhibitions with the Fondation Cartier in France, at the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP), at the 35th São Paulo Biennial, or, more recently, at the 60th Venice Biennale...
How the use of painting has allowed these artists to safeguard their culture, hitherto oral, by ensuring its transmission, but also by becoming the international spokespersons for the spiritual message of their people, deeply linked to Nature and Healing?
Kássia B. Mytara brings a feminine, feminist perspective to the collective, which she brings into dialogue here with her own work as a ceramicist. Wife of the shaman Ibã, founder of the MAHKU collective, “mother” of its other members, a recognized artist since the 1980s... she plays a fundamental role within the group. Focused on “cura”, healing, her personal research and that of the collective come together in the exhibition.
The work of the MAHKU, and to a certain extent of Kássia B Mytara, being based on the transfiguration into painting of traditional Huni Kuin songs, born from visions provoked during the spiritual ceremonies of nixi pae (ayahuasca), sound is central to their approach. This is why the exhibition is accompanied by a “healing song” and a sound design transporting the public to the heart of the forest.
MAHKU Collective
The Mahku Collective (Chico Curumim village, Alto do Rio Jordão, Acre) is a collective of indigenous artists of the Huni Kuin ethnic group, also known as Kaxinawá, formed in 2012 by the healer, leader and shaman Ibã Huni Kuin. Other members of the collective are Kássia B. Mytara, Acelino Tuin, Cleiber Bane, Pedro Maná, Yaka Huni Kuin, Rita Sales, Cleudo Teana Tuin and Isaka Huni Kuin.
Kássia BORGES MYTARA
Kássia (Borges) Mytara is a visual artist, researcher, teacher, curator and Karajá activist. Her artistic research focuses on indigeneity and resistance, women, genealogy and healing. Using mainly the medium of clay in her practice, she is also part of the collective MAHKU - Movimento Dos Artistas Huni Kuin [Movement of Huni Kuin Artists], which translates into painting the traditional songs of the Huni Kuin people, born from the visions provoked during the spiritual ceremonies of nixi pae (or ayahuasca). Within the collective and in her own practice, the artist works on her intimate relationship with nature and places women at the heart of indigenous myths.
des collections publiques brésiliennes, au musée d’Art contemporain de Goiânia, à la Pinacoteca de São Paulo et au MASP.
En 2023, elle s'installe au Chemin Montparnasse pour participer à une résidence de recherche organisée par AWARE (Archive of Woman Artist, Research and Exhibition), dans le cadre du programme The Origin of Others, en partenariat avec le Clarck Institute.
Programming
- September 12, at 7 p.m.: opening shamanic sing by Ibã Sales Huni Kuin
- September 18 at 6:30 p.m.: conference and meeting with the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain: a look back at the history of the Mahku collective
- October 3 at 6:30 p.m .: meeting with journalist Eliane Brum, founder of the collective of journalists “Sumauma” platform on ecology in the Amazon, as part of the French launch of her book Banzeiro Òkòtó: uma viagem à Amazônia Centro do Mundo (Banzeiro Òkòtó: a journey to the Amazon, Center of the World) - Sous sol editions.
- October 24 at 6:30 p.m.: conference on indigenous women, artists and activists, with AWARE (Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibition), Rita and Yaka Huni Kuin and another speaker to be confirmed.
This exhibition is in partnership with the Ricardo FERNANDES gallery,
the AWARE association (Archives of Women Arts, research and exhibitions) as well as the Carmo Johnson Projets organization.