Public lectures in public presentation: Abrazar la Palabra, Medicine and Cultural Healing

Taita Hernando Chindoy in collaboration with artists Milena Bonilla and Ana Cristina Rodriguez Muñoz

Rijksakademie

Screenshot 2024 06 06 184039
Milena Bonilla

May 2 – 9, 2024  10:00 – 17:00 p.m. 

Audience: Resident artists, alumni, artists more broadly, students, general public
Outreach: 55

The two-day lecture and presentation, aimed to open a space for communication and creation to celebrate and co-create in the wor(l)d, by raising awareness of the colonial aspects that inhabit how we understand different notions of knowledge and how these affect the survival of human groups whose epistemologies do not fall within the Capitalist framework of the mode of production of life. It also looked for establishing communication parameters between experiences lived within the notion of territory, opening the discussion on how territory was lived at a collective level in the participants’ perception.

Taita Hernando Chindoy is an indigenous leader from the Pueblo Inga in Colombia and ex-governor of the Resguardo Indígena Inga de Aponte. His work is focused, among other things, on supporting and encouraging traditional medicine and knowledge and raising awareness of the interconnectedness between human lives and biodiversity. Along with this goes his legacy on manual eradication of illicit cultivars in the Inga territory, and his ongoing advocacy for a deeper and more open approach to the relationship between plants’ intelligence, indigenous autonomy, and legislation.

In collaboration with artist, educator, and independent researcher Milena Bonilla, and with Ana Cristina Rodriguez, mother, planter, and pollinator of the word, Taita Hernando invited participants to embrace, nourish, and pay attention to the form our thoughts manifested in the world. The two-day workshop invited image makers, interpreters, and sharers to connect our wording and imagination with notions of collective action, territory, and cultural healing.

We touched upon, among other things, individual and collective experiences with concepts of territory and Buen Vivir, as well as community-nature connections within expanded organisms.

Joining Hernando Chindoy and Milena Bonilla was artist and activist Ana Cristina Rodriguez Muñoz. She was currently researching collective ways of disseminating knowledge in indigenous communities, engaging plant medicine, mothering, ancestral knowledge, and feminist collective practices. This was part of the project for the building of Ecöonera, the Indigenous Pluriversity. Ana Cristina led an initial ceremony or ‘ofrenda’ (gift) to the land.

Given that it was originally planned as an online event, if permission is given by our speakers and workshop participants, we will make a recording of parts of the event and make it accessible online so that it can reach a wider audience. Because of the nature of this being a workshop it is not something that we can ask in advance, but it is our intention to do so.

About the organizers:

Hernando Chindoy is a guest tutor at Sandberg Instituut (Amsterdam), and Ph.D. Honoris Causa from London University of the Arts. He holds several recognitions for his labour as a social leader, among which stand out the Equator Prize 2015 (PNUD) for his work ‘Wuasikamas-El modelo del Pueblo Inga en Aponte‘, the title of Experto en Pueblos Indígenas, Derechos Humanos and Cooperación Internacional from the Universidad Carlos III. From 2017 to 2022, Hernando spearheaded the creation of the National Organization AWAI of the Inga Indigenous people in Colombia, during which time he also contributed to the creation of the Inga Panamazonic Biocultural Pluriversity AWAI. 

Milena Bonilla is a visual artist, educator and independent researcher, born in Bogotá, living and working in Amsterdam. Her artistic practice is currently invested in epistemic colonialism and the different ways in which its historical background and current structures affect organisms, language, imagery, social orders and the perception of history itself. Bonilla is also interested in information, practices and knowledge that propose and place particular questions about language and agency as ontological properties of humans only, and how this precept is embedded in the way in which economic policies under capitalism operate.   

Her work has been shown, screened and performed in the last years among others at Galeria Municipal do Porto; Nest, The Hague; Framer Framed, Amsterdam; A Tale of a Tub, Rotterdam; Museo del Oro Quimbaya, Armenia, Quindío (CO); MHKA, Antwerp; MACRO Museum, Rome; the European Social Science History Conference (ESSHC), Amsterdam; Konsthall C, Stockholm; Temporary Gallery, Cologne; MOCO, Montpellier; and The Mistake Room in Los Angeles. 

Ana Cristina Rodriguez Muñoz – Mother, seeder and pollinator of the word for life. Colombian. Guardian of Wuasikamas territory, engaging plant medicine, mothering, ancestral knowledge and feminist collective practices. This, as part of the project for the building of  ËCONEÊRÃ, a virtual pluriversity which aims to be a space of education from and for indigenous, black and peasant communities in specific territories of the Americas. It seeks to strengthen the agency and ecological consequences of colonialism in their territories, which entails constant oppression from structural violence.

Timeline

WHW

ACTIVITY
TYPE
DATE
PARTICIPANTS
LOCATION
Exhibition
Marwa Arsanios, Željko Beljan, Marina Naprushkina, Rupali Patil, Dan Perjovschi, Selma Selman, Marko Tadić, Cecilia Vicuña
Croatian Association of Visual Artists (HDLU), Zagreb
Conference
Kohei Saito, Françoise Vergès, Roland Ngam, Karin Doolan, Diana Ürge-Vorsatz, Paul Stubbs, Marwa Arsanios, Pablo Martinez, faridrakun (ruangrupa), Alexandra Köves
Zagreb trade fair, Youth Center Ribnjak, HDLU, Zagreb
Discussion
Marina Naprushkina
Youth Culture Centre Ribnjak in Zagreb
Seminar
Pablo Martinez, Adelita Husni Bey
Youth Culture Centre Ribnjak in Zagreb
Seminar
Marina Naprushkina
Youth Culture Centre Ribnjak in Zagreb
Seminar
Yael Davis
Youth Culture Centre Ribnjak in Zagreb
Summer School
Pablo Martinez, Marina Naprushkina, Gleb Amankulov, Larissa Araz, Kemil Bekteši, Klara Burić, Katja Crevar, Aria Farajnezhad, Đejmi Hadrović, Hu Yun, Mari Kalabegashvili, Ivana Mirchevska, Jelisaveta Rapaić, Rita Süveges
Youth Culture Centre Ribnjak in Zagreb
Seminar
Zbyněk Baladrán
Online
Exhibition
Vlatka Horvat, Marina Naprushkina
Gallery Nova, Teslina 7, Zagreb

Rijksakademie

ACTIVITY
TYPE
DATE
PARTICIPANTS
LOCATION
Residency
Mirte Hartland, Poetry Circle, Rijksakademie
Rijksakademie
Residency
Reza Afisina (Arts Collaboratory guest resident), Rijksakademie
Rijksakademie
Exhibition
Rijksakademie
Lecture
Taita Hernando Chindoy in collaboration with artists Milena Bonilla and Ana Cristina Rodriguez Muñoz
Rijksakademie
Workshop
Pablo Martinez, Jose Salas, Chad Cordeiro, Fransisca Angela, Hamo Salein, Elke Uitenthuis, Ramia Suleiman, Wes Mapes, Ratu Saraswati, Rijksakademie, Framer Framed
Framer Framed
Exhibition
Wouter van der Laan, Esther Meijer, We Sell Reality, Elke Uitentuis - Rijksakademie Social Practice Workshop
Framer Framed
Residency
Peng Zhang
Rijksakademie
Residency
Arts Collaboratory members and Rijksakademie residents
Rijksakademie
Workshop
Wouter van der Laan, Esther Meijer, We Sell Reality
Rijksakademie

NNM

ACTIVITY
TYPE
DATE
PARTICIPANTS
LOCATION
Workshop
Dušan Rodić
Strandbad Tegelsee/Zentrum für Kultur und Erholung Schwarzer Weg 95, 13505 Berlin
Workshop
Edoardo Micheli
Strandbad Tegelsee/Zentrum für Kultur und Erholung Schwarzer Weg 95, 13505 Berlin
Workshop
Josias Scharf
Strandbad Tegelsee /Zentrum für Kultur und Erholung Schwarzer Weg 95, 13505 Berlin
Discussion
Alungoo Xatan, Dior Thiam, etaïnn zwer, Frances Breden
Strandbad Tegelsee/Zentrum für Kultur und Erholung Schwarzer Weg 95, 13505 Berlin
Residency
Rupali Patil
Strandbad Tegelsee/Zentrum für Kultur und Erholung Schwarzer Weg 95, 13505 Berlin
Workshop
Alina Dzeravianka and Sveta Husakova
Strandbad Tegelsee /Zentrum für Kultur und Erholung Schwarzer Weg 95, 13505 Berlin
Lecture
Daniela Medina Poch, Raras Umaratih, Krishan Rajapakshe
Strandbad Tegelsee /Zentrum für Kultur und Erholung Schwarzer Weg 95, 13505 Berlin
Workshop
Lena Pozdnyakova and Eldar Tagi
Strandbad Tegelsee/Zentrum für Kultur und Erholung Schwarzer Weg 95, 13505 Berlin
Discussion
Mariam Agamian, Ju Bavyka, Masha Beketova, Timur V. and Galka Yarmanova
Strandbad Tegelsee/Zentrum für Kultur und Erholung Schwarzer Weg 95, 13505 Berlin
Discussion
Lynhan Balatbat-Helbock, Hubert Gromny, Kelly Krugman, Mokia Laisin, Lia Milanesio
Strandbad Tegelsee/Zentrum für Kultur und Erholung Schwarzer Weg 95, 13505 Berlin
Lecture
Marta Sala, Batoul Sedawi, Krishan Rajapakshe
Strandbad Tegelsee/Zentrum für Kultur und Erholung Schwarzer Weg 95, 13505 Berlin
Performance
Lahya Aukongo, Amora C.Bosco, Krishan Rajapakshe
Strandbad Tegelsee /Zentrum für Kultur und Erholung Schwarzer Weg 95, 13505 Berlin
Workshop
Improvisation Group / Maddi Fuente Ubani, Cristina Leoni-Osion, Biljiana Pais, Lena Pozdnyakova, Cristina Viegas
Strandbad Tegelsee /Zentrum für Kultur und Erholung Schwarzer Weg 95, 13505 Berlin
Performance
Sofia Ocherednaya, Betül Torlak, Kasia Wojcik and Yasemin Altınay
Strandbad Tegelsee /Zentrum für Kultur und Erholung Schwarzer Weg 95, 13505 Berlin
Exhibition
Zinzi Buchanan, Inky Lee, Daniela Medina Poch, and Meghna Singh
Strandbad Tegelsee /Zentrum für Kultur und Erholung Schwarzer Weg 95, 13505 Berlin
Performance
Galina Yarmanova, Jahia La Sangoma, Marianna Szczygielska, Sybille Neumeyer and Svitlana Shymko
Strandbad Tegelsee /Zentrum für Kultur und Erholung Schwarzer Weg 95, 13505 Berlin
Workshop
Biljana Pais
Strandbad Tegelsee /Zentrum für Kultur und Erholung Schwarzer Weg 95, 13505 Berlin
Pubic Talk, Workshop
Alina Dzeravianka, Sveta Husakova
Strandbad Tegelsee /Zentrum für Kultur und Erholung Schwarzer Weg 95, 13505 Berlin
Performance
Jelena Fužinato, Bojana Fužinato and Endi Tupja
Strandbad Tegelsee /Zentrum für Kultur und Erholung Schwarzer Weg 95, 13505 Berlin
Workshop
Cam-Anh Luong and Roland Sookias
Strandbad Tegelsee /Zentrum für Kultur und Erholung Schwarzer Weg 95, 13505 Berlin
Workshop
Edoardo Micheli
Strandbad Tegelsee /Zentrum für Kultur und Erholung Schwarzer Weg 95, 13505 Berlin
Discussion
Rupali Patil
Strandbad Tegelsee /Zentrum für Kultur und Erholung Schwarzer Weg 95, 13505 Berlin
Workshop
Greta Cazzola and Nicola
Strandbad Tegelsee /Zentrum für Kultur und Erholung Schwarzer Weg 95, 13505 Berlin
Podcast
Florine Schüschke, Eleni Tsamadia, Alina Dzeravianka, Marina Naprushkina, Agnieszka Kilian, Rupali Patil, Galina Yarmanova, Marianna Szczygielska, Svitlana Shymko, Jahia La Sangoma, Sybille Neumeyer, Shane Monro, Biljana País, Sofia Ocherednaya, Betül Torlak, Kasia Wojcik, COVEN BERLIN, Marta Sala, Sveta Husakova, Cyrille Cartier, Saša Kralj, Lahya Aukongo, Amora C.Bosco, Mariam Agamian, Dorota Blaszczak, Cheong Kin Man, Marta Sala, Lynhan Balatbat-Helbock, Hubert Gromny, Kelly Krugman, Mokia Laisin, Lia Milanesio, Jelena Fužinato, Bojana Fužinato, Sveta Husakova
Berlin and online