Antiqua is the 2nd oldest city in Central America with cobblestone streets and eroding facades… but lots of restaurants and fun shops. It is only an hour from the capitol. The first stop for Johann and me is the bookstore, Turerto (one-eyed). We next meet the director of CIRMA, a foundation for the investigation of Meso-American social studies. We give him 2 books and he gives us one. We lunch at a gourmet restaurant and the daughter of Goyri Gonzalez, one of the artists in our first book, joins us. She shows us her colonial home complete with b & b right in the middle of town with a spectacular view of Volcan Agua.
It is a walking town but we drive to a suburb, Santa Ana, to visit the museum, La Nueva Fabrica, exhibiting the work of contemporary, conceptual Mayan artist, Antonio Pichillá. He is internationally known and represented in many museums. Infront of the museum is a restaurant within 2 buses. And inside the current exhibition as well as a photo exhibit & collection. It is super interesting. The indigenous culture is very strong and growing here, despite barriers put up by government and society.
The large woven X represents the 4 colors of corn… one of the sacred elements of the Maya. Rituals are demonstrated in videos, and the textiles are beautifully crafted. There are 25 different groups of Maya here in Guatemala and they all have unique languages. The sticks wrapped in cloth represent the elders that govern the communities. Smoke and striking are means of healing.
After coffee and a tasty pastry, we head back to Guatemala City and stop to meet a curator and art critic. Rossina Cazali is currently curating a show for the Guatemalan artist I know as Margot Fanjul (a pseudonym) at the Sofia Reina Museum in Spain. She is skeptical at first about our project, but warms to the idea as we speak.
And like the exhibit we see today, Johann and I start to weave an idea of what contemporary art is … at least in Guatemala… and perhaps all of Central America.
Antonio Picilla
