What is Nosotros?

The issue

Nosotros is the Spanish word for “us”. This curatorial project aims to anchor in the notion of collectivity in order to generate a space of encounter that addresses diversity in a racist context. Addressing diversity not only means visibility or exhibition, but it refers to empathize with the other, breaking down the segregation and stereotypes that have inflicted the way in which we construct our identity in Guatemala. The curatorial project proposes performance and participatory arts as means of questioning and contesting racism and segregation. To land on a specific location for the project, I am also proposing a reconfiguration of the ethnological section at the National Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.

Historical Background

In Guatemala, the colonial regime of the Spanish Crown imposed a system of labeling and segregating people according to their ancestry. Therefore, it was different to be a criollo (a person of European ancestry) than a mestizo (a person from indigenous and European ancestry), and so on. Deeper than the labeling, indigenous Maya and Xinca people were geographically segregated in townships, establishing a racist society as Casaús (2013) describes:

“The spaces of racism in the colonial society were very clear, the segregation of indigenous from the Spanish townships, the topic of the stereotype, the creation of the stereotype: the indigenous person is bad, conformist, lazy, drunkard, etc. And from the beginning, a pigmentocracy was established, because people were divided according to the color of the skin.”

This imposition of a racist stereotype and segregation followed throughout the history of Guatemala, which led up to the genocide of the Maya Ixil people in between 1981 and 1983.

In a context of segregation, the so-called European descendant dominating group, also known as “ladinos”, founded the National Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology in 1898; a museum which responded to their racist agenda of hegemony. Nowadays, the official site of the museum states the following aim: “preserving and exhibiting archaeological and ethnological vestiges and artifacts which belong to the cultural and historic heritage of Guatemala” (Red Nacional de Información Cultural, 2017). The historical moment in which the museum was created is a key factor to understand the underlying racism behind the exhibition: the 19th century when the Independence Act was signed (1821), and also “in the 19th century, we will encounter that because of the racial doctrine of Darwinism, the indigenous person, besides this stereotype, is also going to be conceived as an inferior race, a stultified race, a degenerated race” (Casaús, 2013). The ethnological section of the museum has not changed since the end of the 19th century.

From this background, is the purpose of this project to reconfigure the curatorial design of the ethnological exhibition. It seeks to reshape the concept of a museum which is based on tangible objects, to an encounter with live performance and human interaction.

We are alive: from objects to performance

One of the elements in the ethnology section of the above-mentioned museum, is the presence of manikins to depict the everyday costumes and ritual objects from specific Maya ethnolinguistic groups. The frozen scenes make the impression of a timeless phenomenon, which does not relate to the flow of history. In contrast to this notion, is my aim to recognize people’s agency in their own heritage and creativity, as Kirshenblatt-Gimblett has stated:

“Unlike things, animals, and plants, people are not only objects of cultural preservation but also subjects. They are not only cultural carriers and transmitters (the terms are unfortunate, as is ‘masterpiece’) but also agents in the heritage enterprise itself.” (Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, 2004 p. 58)

The current exhibition does not contest the white gaze that once upon a time designed it. Rather, it reinforces the impression of the Maya group as a faraway reality. Within a similar stance to the Whitemess project, I claim that is possible to reinvent and revitalize identities by bringing live performances to the museum. Performances that transform the museum’s oppressive identity categories to a more fluid open display of the contemporary human beings that we are. Especially, regarding dance, I am based on the statement by Gore and Grau (2014 p.130) that dance is “not only a movement practice, but also a special mode of relational experience with its own distinct properties”. This means that dance can be a mean to generate a different kind or relationship among people that is not segregation, but inclusion.

The project

This curatorial project aims to bring performance and body experiences as an opportunity for the audience to question the construction of identities and contest segregation. Three main features:

Conceives a multidisciplinary approach of performing arts, as theatre, dance and music are intertwined for most artists.
Acknowledges authorship, agency and creativity to the participants, both as performers and visitors.

In order to bring the museum back to life, I propose to organize different modalities of performance in several activities:

Performances: Invite Guatemalan artists that already have questioned their identity to perform allowing interaction and participation from the audience.
Open mics: An open space to share personal stories and performances, guided by a specific topic each time.
Workshops: In conjunction with the project Whitemess, the workshops will provide tools to the participants in order to revisit and tell their personal stories in different formats, based on their own experiences in a racist context. The aim is to open space for conversations that can allow process of healing and releasing the trauma of oppression and segregation.
Talks: the aim is to bring academics and practitioners together in conversation, to address the discrepancies that often bring trouble when organizing and performing traditional dance and creating new pieces. Examples of such topics are:
- Talking about the sacred: a panel to understand the sacred dimension of Maya performances.
- Staging dance and traditions: issues of choregraphing stage performances of rituals.
- Copyright issues.

How the site works:

In the blog, you will find examples of artists, researchers and projects who could participate in the activities mentioned before. There is also information related to the project Whitemess, which was the seed to generate questions about racism and segregation, in order to look for inclusiveness and new ways of performing actual identities.

References

Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, B. (2004) Intangible Heritage as Metacultural Production,

Museum International, 56 (1–2), 52-65pp..

Casaús, M. (2013). Sentencia C-01076-2011-00015 Of 2. pp. 245-255. Organismo Judicial, Guatemala.

Gore, G, and Grau, A. (2014) Dance, cultural heritage, and the training of future heritage “managers”: Anthropological reflections. In Fiskvik, A. and Stranden, M. (eds) (Re)Searching the Field: Festschrift in Honour of Egil Bakka. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget. 117-138pp.

Red Nacional de Información Cultural, 2017 “Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología” Available at: http://www.sic.mcd.gob.gt/ficha.php?table=museo&table_id=1463