INVISIBLE SEEDS

Agriculture; sustainability; food systems 

Invisible Seeds was created over the last two years through conversations and exchanges between artists Gala Berger, Metsá Rama (Pilar Arce), and agroecologist Irene Guerrero. The project speaks about food sovereignty and the agricultural science of the Shipibo-Konibo peoples in the communities of Yarinacocha and Paoyhan in the Peruvian Amazon. One of the forms that this conversation project has taken is this textile piece, which represents part of these dialogues, recipes, species of animals and plants, spirits, gods, and the importance of the Kené, -the design based on the drawings of the skin of the anaconda- that has a deep symbolic meaning since it represents the geography of the forest, the ancestral connection between all the living beings and its sensitive worlds. Invisible Seeds was conceived by Berger and Rama with the vital advice of Guerrero, and produced by the hands of the artists Nélida Mahua, Lourdes Mahua, Lucy Silvano, Yoxan Ana, and Zaida Silvano.  

Gala Berger and Metsá Rama (Pilar Arce) (Argentina - Peru) Invisible Seeds 2022 - 2024 Natural pigments, acrylic paint, thread embroidery on tocuyo fabric, 320 x 260 cm Produced by Nélida Mahua, Lourdes Mahua, Lucy Silvano, Yoxan Ana, and Zaida Silvano.

Invisible Seeds will seek to commission a new series of embroidered and painted textiles by the Shipibo-Konibo community of artists. The images depicted on these textiles will focus on the complex systems of planting, harvesting, and treating agricultural products that sustain life in the Amazon. With the pieces obtained by this commission, a unique spatial installation will be created.

In that sense, the commissioned pieces will address the relationships between the territory, human beings, non-human forms, and the spiritual worlds. Produced mostly by women, Shipibo art represents an entire system of communication with plants and plant life. The Shipibo word that designates these visual productions is Kené, which means design. The Kené is in itself a wide visual repertoire of geometric patterns on objects, ceramics, textiles, etc. But also the Kené is a method of image construction that presents a cyclical understanding of time and space where the human body and nature exist in a reciprocal dimension, in a physical and spiritual continuation. This is because there is ritual knowledge associated with these geometric designs, and because they have an aesthetic, scientific, linguistic, and therapeutic dimension that expresses the Shipibo vision of the world. 

Through this project, we will develop a model of dialogue and co-responsibility in the decision-making processes between the artists involved (Metsa Rama and Gala Berger) with the Shipibo-Konibo artists in the Amazon and the specialized advice on biodiversity of Irene Guerrero Fernandez (JRC). 

The pieces produced will propose the recognition of indigenous contributions to the sustainability of food systems, but will also accompany the struggles of the Shipibo people who claim the preservation and respect of their ancestral knowledge, for urgent actions to prevent the destruction of the Amazon and for better living conditions for indigenous peoples in Peru and everywhere.

Brief introduction to Shipibo-Konibo Art 

Shipibo-Konibo Women Artists 

As we mentioned before, one of the main characteristics of the Shipibo-Konibo communities is their artistic production, particularly embroidery and paintings on cloth, wood, fabrics, and ceramics, in which geometric patterns known as Kené are used. Making Kené, that is, painting, embroidering, or weaving designs, is a typically female art, taught from mother to daughter, which uses a variety of materials, some derived from the forest and the farms, such as natural dyes, seeds, and cotton, and others industrial, such as fabrics, colored wool threads, and glass beads. 

The Kené, the network that unites all the sensible worlds 

The Kené is the design -based on the drawings of the skin of the anaconda- that has a deep symbolic meaning since it represents the geography of the forest, wildlife, and other living organisms. The elaboration of the Kené is intrinsically related to the knowledge about plants, and it is accessed through the visions produced by introspection induced by plants such as ayahuasca and chakruna. 

Cosmology 

According to Shipibo-Konibo epistemologies, the world (nete) is made up of four large spaces: water (jene), earth (mai), air (niwe), and sky (nai). In these four spaces or worlds live different beings in interrelation: humans, animals, plants, stars, and spirits. In the world of water (jene nete) live fish and other beings are capable of transforming into humans. Among them, Ronin -the anaconda- mother of the water who takes care of the water and the fish. Being communities that live on the banks of the Ucayali River and its tributaries, the world of water is fundamental, since the fish are the basis of their diet and the rivers are also the main means of transport. On the land (mai), live the Shipibos, the animals, and various beings such as the mothers of the plants. The air (niwe) is the space where beings live that punish or harm and that regulate the behavior of the Shipibos. For its part, the sky (nai) is the space where the souls of the dead are found. 

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Recently, the Ministry of Culture of Peru, through Vice-ministerial Resolution No. 068-2016-VMP- CIC-MC, has recognized the Shipibo customs of dividing the world as a Cultural Heritage of the Nation. The explanatory statement of the regulations recognizes the role of these practices as “an energetic and sound link between the spirits of nature and the human spirit”.

Climate change and environmental degradation are existential threats facing Europe and the rest of the world. To overcome these challenges, the European Union (EU) has launched the so-called European Green Deal (EVP). This is a series of comprehensive measures to transform the EU into a modern, resource-efficient, and competitive economy by ensuring: that there are no net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, that economic growth is decoupled from the use of resources, and that there are no people or places left behind. Although the PVE is mainly a domestic strategy, it also has a dimension beyond Europe. The idea of ensuring that “no people or places are left behind” is infused with the EU’s aspiration to become the global leader in sustainability. For this reason, promoting sustainable forms of exploitation of resources beyond the borders of the Union is part of this global strategy to accompany societies in their transition towards sustainability. 

About agriculture in the Amazon 

The conservation and use of soils and biodiversity in areas of the Peruvian Amazon inhabited by native populations are sustained by the cultural relations of coexistence between them and their three life spaces: the forest, the water, and the farm. In these living spaces, there is a relationship of interdependence between human communities, cultivated plants, animal husbandry, and wild flora and fauna –including birds and fish–. This interdependence is expressed in the ways of life and activities of the communities that are part of the Amazonian cultural baggage. The interdependence between the communities and their environment is associated with the times of the year in which these three living spaces offer food and other products. When the rivers do not provide sufficient amounts of food (fish), the farm does so with the crops and, in the months when the farms do not produce enough food, the forest provides fruits and meat from hunting. Correspondingly, the native Amazonian community does not exert unnecessary pressure on these spaces when there are no conditions or sufficient supply of products in them. This temporality allows traditional agricultural practices to be carried out that take advantage of the fertile soils on the banks of rivers and oxbow lakes. In the dry season (April-October) when the rains decrease in the Andes and the highlands of the Amazon, the rivers of the “low jungle” leave extensive cultivable areas on their banks. These are the low floodable terraces with soils of recent alluvial origin. The high fertility is due to the dragging of abundant organic matter con sisting mainly of leaves, branches, stems, roots, and fruits that come from the eastern flank of the Andes and the “high jungle”. This organic matter is deposited in the shallows during the months (November-March) that the rainy season lasts. The high temperatures of the Amazon facilitate their decomposition and endow them with the appropriate fertility for a diversity of tropical crops and wild species. After the last harvests, in mid-October and early November, the lowlands are flooded again and the following year they form again in the same or other places along the marginal strips of the rivers.

Installation Details 

The work process is divided between a) the previous research, b) the conversations to create the textile commissions and c) the resulting pieces. 

a) The research aims to define the main contributions of agriculture and planting in the Shipibo-Konibo communities. Likewise, a field visit to the Amazon will allow us to contact artists and other cultural agents. 

b) Once the artists who are going to be commissioned for the creation of the pieces have been determined, the themes to be represented will be defined together. Shipibo-Knobo artists have been using plant materials for generations to produce natural pigments that they later use in their textiles. However, although the use of black and brown pigments is still relatively common, other pigments are used less frequently and in many cases have been replaced by acrylic paints. Our project will try to support the maintenance and use of these ancestral practices of using plant pigments, which will also provide a continuous connection with traditional plant knowledge. 

c) The textile pieces (around fourteen) will be transported from the Amazon to Lima, for later photographic registration and production of written texts. Then they will be shipped to Italy for the exhibition at Ispra, and for the other venues where the exhibition travels.