{"id":407,"date":"2023-11-13T16:32:20","date_gmt":"2023-11-13T16:32:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinelephant.org\/InhabitingSpaces\/?page_id=407"},"modified":"2023-11-13T16:57:14","modified_gmt":"2023-11-13T16:57:14","slug":"seba-calfuqueo","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/latinelephant.org\/InhabitingSpaces\/seba-calfuqueo\/","title":{"rendered":"SEBA CALFUQUEO"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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SEBA CALFUQUEO<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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ESPA\u00d1OL<\/span><\/h5>

Como parte del programa p\u00fablico <\/span>Derecho a habitar<\/span><\/i>, Sebasti\u00e1n Calfuqueo, artista chilen@, ind\u00edgena mapuche, no-binario, ha sido invitado por Latin Elephant para desarrollar un taller y presentar una performance en Gasworks. En conversaci\u00f3n con Sebas, abordamos cuestiones vinculadas al colonialismo y los cuerpos, la identidad sexual, el racismo y las dificultades de navegar en las instituciones culturales, donde los valores en tendencia dominan por sobre las convicciones genuinas.<\/span><\/p>

Hola Sebas, gracias por tu tiempo para esta entrevista.<\/b><\/p>

Nos puedes relatar de qu\u00e9 se trataron tu performance y workshop, y c\u00f3mo se enmarcan en tu pr\u00e1ctica art\u00edstica?<\/b><\/p>

La obra <\/span>Cuerpos en resistencia<\/span><\/i> fue la primera performance que realic\u00e9 en Europa. El trabajo recoge, a partir de relatos coloniales, diversas formas para nombrar la \u201csodom\u00eda\u201d en <\/span>mapudungun<\/span><\/i>, la lengua mapuche. Esta propuesta piensa las relaciones de la colonizaci\u00f3n y la evangelizaci\u00f3n como medios que utilizaron los colonizadores para eliminar y normalizar las identidades que no se adecuaban al binarismo femenino-masculino antes de la llegada del hombre blanco a estos territorios. La obra trabaja espec\u00edficamente con mi cuerpo, como eje central, utilizando la Wu\u00f1elfe (Lucero del amanecer o Venus): iconograf\u00eda asociada a la resistencia contra el proceso colonial. De mi cuerpo se desprende una ambig\u00fcedad que dificulta que se me asigne un g\u00e9nero de forma f\u00e1cil o azarosa. No me defino como una persona ni femenina, ni masculina. En mi trabajo, ese espacio del \u201centre\u201d resulta una potencia para desbaratar el binarismo imperante. Sumado a ello, otro componente importante de la performance fue el sonido. Utilizo las <\/span>kaswawillas<\/span><\/i>, instrumento mapuche ceremonial que se utiliza para hacer rogativas. Los sentidos son parte importante en esta obra. El olor, por una parte, es central y da inicio al acto performativo sahumando hierbas tales como el cedr\u00f3n, el romero y la salvia, especies que remiten a la purificaci\u00f3n de lugares cargados negativamente. Comienzo con esta acci\u00f3n en particular para referirme a esa carga negativa que dej\u00f3 el colonialismo sobre nuestras identidades, las que han sido cuestionadas y violentadas.<\/span><\/p>

Por \u00faltimo, otro punto importante es la utilizaci\u00f3n del color azul. Enmarcado como sagrado, el azul da cuenta de la relaci\u00f3n con los antepasados. Elicura Chihuailaf, gran poeta mapuche, comenta que provenimos del azul profundo, por eso ocupo este color, como una manera de respetar a mis antepasados disidentes, honr\u00e1ndoles. En la performance escribo con pelo, pienso el pelo como un material sin g\u00e9nero, pero que se le condicion\u00f3 a pensarse muy en relaci\u00f3n a lo femenino. En el mundo ind\u00edgena el pelo no tiene ese significado, sino otros, mucho m\u00e1s po\u00e9ticos o fuertemente asociados a la identidad. Decido utilizar el pelo como referencia tambi\u00e9n a la colonizaci\u00f3n del cuerpo; los hombres ind\u00edgenas debieron cortar sus cabellos para asimilarse en la cultura dominante. El pelo es un lugar que evidencia esa colonialidad. Escribo \u201cnon-binary\u201d con pelo para decir que antes de la invasi\u00f3n en estos territorios, el g\u00e9nero no era binario.<\/span><\/p>

En el taller <\/span>Cuerpos insubordinados<\/span><\/i> (Insubordinate Bodies)<\/span><\/i> revisamos diversos referentes de la historia del arte en Latinoam\u00e9rica para cuestionar tambi\u00e9n esa idea blanqueada del arte latinoamericano que existe en las artes visuales, donde los cuerpos racializados no tienen voz ni agencia. En el taller pensamos c\u00f3mo el cuerpo puede ser un soporte para pensar las relaciones del mundo y resistir al colonialismo. Pensamos en la importancia de los sentidos en las performances, en el contacto del artista con los espectadores y, finalmente, hicimos acciones que nos permitieron pensar c\u00f3mo representar las diversas posibilidades existentes, por medio del cuerpo.<\/span><\/p>

Para m\u00ed, ambas instancias permitieron ampliar mi trabajo a otros territorios. Creo que eso permite que las discusiones se expandan y, de la misma forma, que existan m\u00e1s variantes para pensar el contenido de la obra. El trabajo art\u00edstico se nutre y no queda reducido \u00fanicamente a su lugar de enunciaci\u00f3n, sino que se conecta con otros que no necesariamente habitan el mismo lugar.<\/span><\/p>

\u00bfTienes en mente alg\u00fan impacto en particular que te gustar\u00eda generar en tu audiencia? \u00bfQu\u00e9 sucedi\u00f3 particularmente con los participantes del workshop?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>

Siento que lo m\u00e1s importante tuvo que ver con el impacto que produjo la pandemia sobre los cuerpos. Fue mi primera performance posterior a la cuarentena obligatoria que debimos realizar, volver a tener contacto con la audiencia, con el p\u00fablico, fue muy potente y conmovedor. Me sent\u00ed como liberade posterior a la acci\u00f3n. Hab\u00eda mucha energ\u00eda acumulada desde los tiempos que apareci\u00f3 el Covid. Siento, tambi\u00e9n, que mi trabajo evoca los sentidos y, en el contexto de Londres, pienso que todo eso fue importante para la audiencia: el olor, las miradas con el p\u00fablico y mi mismo cuerpo. En el workshop observ\u00e9 mucha complicidad.\u00a0Creo que lo m\u00e1s importante tiene que ver con que el cuerpo se expresa, en relaci\u00f3n con sus cualidades f\u00edsicas, de acuerdo a c\u00f3mo fue arbitrariamente asignado en el mundo o en su mismo territorio.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u00bfQu\u00e9 lugar ocupa en tu pr\u00e1ctica art\u00edstica tu identidad? \u00bfC\u00f3mo se expresa el territorio del que sos originari@ en tu trabajo?<\/b><\/p>

Para m\u00ed es importante hablar desde el lugar que habito, con las capas y condiciones que eso implica, no ficcionar mi lugar, sino situarlo en un espacio que habita tambi\u00e9n en ciertas contradicciones. No provengo de una comunidad, mi experiencia ind\u00edgena tiene que ver con la di\u00e1spora mapuche, la migraci\u00f3n forzada que debieron realizar mis abuelos a temprana edad. Entonces, mi identidad est\u00e1 permeada por todo eso, por mixturas, por cruces entre el campo y la ciudad, etc. Creo que toda esa experiencia convoca o se siente en sinton\u00eda con muchas otras personas de la di\u00e1spora del mundo, mas all\u00e1 del mismo pueblo mapuche.<\/span><\/p>

Mi trabajo es muy local, siempre tiene un v\u00ednculo importante con <\/span>Wallmapu<\/span><\/i>, que es el territorio al que siempre me refiero,\u00a0buscando hacer un gesto, una invitaci\u00f3n hacia lo global, encontrando similitudes y tensiones con otros lugares, pensando el colonialismo como una opresi\u00f3n que afecta a muchas personas y grupos.<\/span><\/p>

En otra publicaci\u00f3n dijiste que tu trabajo se conecta con experiencias de racismo y racializaci\u00f3n que est\u00e1n fundadas por la extrema violencia de la historia colonial. \u00bfPuedes expandirte sobre esto?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>

Me parece que las artes visuales en general han dejado fuera de representaci\u00f3n a aquellos relatos que no est\u00e1n dentro de la hegemon\u00eda racial imperante. El arte es un espacio muy endog\u00e1mico, donde la presencia de otros cuerpos e identidades es muy reciente. La visibilidad de las personas que pertenecemos a pueblos ind\u00edgenas tambi\u00e9n es nueva. Nunca se hab\u00edan incluido otras miradas. Solo ahora podemos dar nuestra propia visi\u00f3n sobre lo que aconteci\u00f3, c\u00f3mo fueron tratados nuestros abuelos, nuestros antepasados. Creo que esta visibilidad tambi\u00e9n ha aportado a nuevos cuestionamientos, a expandir preguntas a lugares que antes eran impensados de poner en duda. Me interesa en mi trabajo pensar mucho la relaci\u00f3n sobre el pasado, en base a archivos, registros que dan cuenta de todo el racismo bajo el cual fuimos educades, todes. Me parece importante pensar la historia en conflicto, con las palabras que son indicadas para narrar lo que sucedi\u00f3: despojo, violaci\u00f3n y sometimiento para, de esta manera, pensar en alguna forma de traer ese pasado, en v\u00ednculo con el presente, y cuestionarnos qu\u00e9 sucede hoy y c\u00f3mo el ahora es el producto de un pasado marcado por la violencia.<\/span><\/p>

Nos puedes contar brevemente c\u00f3mo la historia de los cuerpos y la identidad sexual en sociedades pre-coloniales estaba formada? \u00bfQu\u00e9 efectos ha tenido el colonialismo sobre esta historia?<\/b><\/p>

Antes de la colonizaci\u00f3n no exist\u00eda \u00fanicamente lo femenino y lo masculino como lugares r\u00edgidos para el g\u00e9nero. Muchos archivos dan cuenta de cuerpos que no se ajustaban al binarismo, que ten\u00edan otros deseos y sexualidades, lo que evidentemente era mal visto por el ojo cristiano colonial. La gran mayor\u00eda de estas referencias hablan del pecado de la sodom\u00eda, es decir, dotaron a los cuerpos sexodiversos como desviados, incorrectos y afirmando que esas pr\u00e1cticas deb\u00edan ser anuladas, exterminadas. En varios de esos relatos aparece la muerte como la condena a la sodom\u00eda. Ah\u00ed uno entiende c\u00f3mo esa mirada colonizadora tambi\u00e9n ha calado profundamente en la historia de los pueblos ind\u00edgenas. Podemos evidenciar el impacto que gener\u00f3 en los roles de g\u00e9nero que se siguen replicando producto de esa colonizaci\u00f3n del deseo y del cuerpo.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Actualmente observamos en las instituciones culturales un gran inter\u00e9s en incluir trabajos de artistas que reflexionan sobre el medio ambiente y los pueblos originarios. \u00bfC\u00f3mo se puede resistir a lo que puede ser una moda\/oportunismo y a la vez participar en la escena para habilitar la discusi\u00f3n y el di\u00e1logo genuino?<\/b><\/p>

Esta es una contradicci\u00f3n que he tenido que habitar mucho \u00faltimamente. Siento que muchos espacios se han aprovechado de los artistas para limpiar su imagen, porque no ten\u00edan inter\u00e9s real en estos temas y porque hasta hace poco les parec\u00edan poco relevantes. De pronto, estas tem\u00e1ticas comienzan a hacerse m\u00e1s visibles, m\u00e1s presentes en el ahora y es ah\u00ed cuando las instituciones comienzan a llenar cuotas, para no ser llamadas racistas o para dar una imagen progresista, inclusiva, siendo esto \u00faltimo, algo que realmente evidencia lo racistas y poco inclusivas que son sus experiencias. Yo he decidido m\u00e1s conscientemente tratar de aparecer en lugares que me son problem\u00e1ticos, creo que esos espacios deben ser tomados por otras voces, contando lo que realmente sucede.<\/span><\/p>

\u00bfC\u00f3mo fue tu experiencia trabajando con Latin Elephant? \u00bfTe quedas con alguna imagen en especial en relaci\u00f3n a las comunidades latinas habitando en Londres?<\/b><\/p>

Me pareci\u00f3 una experiencia muy enriquecedora para conocer el proceso de di\u00e1spora que existe dentro de la comunidad latina en Londres. Tambi\u00e9n destaco la importancia de generar espacios de representaci\u00f3n, de visibilidad, en una ciudad que intenta constantemente unificar todo. Creo que esa imagen de resistencia cal\u00f3 muy hondo en m\u00ed. Esa necesidad de entablar relaciones con gente que comparti\u00f3 el mismo territorio al que anhelamos retornar o del cual debiste salir por condiciones de empobrecimiento. Estos relatos, en muchas ocasiones, son los relatos que nos toca ocupar por provenir de Latino Am\u00e9rica y es algo que debemos trabajar para cambiar. Siento, tambi\u00e9n, que hay mucha resistencia a trav\u00e9s del cuerpo, del baile, de la fiesta y la alegr\u00eda expresada por estas expresiones. Los olores de las comidas, el acto de encontrarse y reconocerse en un grupo me parece, a su vez, muy significativo.<\/span><\/p>

ENGLISH<\/span><\/p>

As part of <\/span>Right to Inhabit<\/span><\/i>, Latin Elephant\u2019s public programme, Sebastian Calfuqueo, Chilean Indigenous Mapuche non-binary artist has been invited to develop a workshop and present a performance at Gasworks. In conversation with them, we treat subject matters such as colonialism and bodies, sexual identity, racism and the difficulties of navigating cultural institutions, where current trends dominate over genuine values.<\/span><\/p>

Hello Sebas, thank you for your time for this interview.<\/b><\/p>

Could you tell us what your performance and workshop were about, and how they fit into your artistic practice?<\/b><\/p>

The work <\/span>Bodies in Resistance<\/span><\/i> was the first performance I did in Europe. The work collects from colonial stories various ways to name “sodomy” in Mapudungun, the Mapuche language. This proposal thinks of the relations of colonisation and evangelisation as means used by the colonisers to eliminate and normalise identities that did not fit the female-male binarism before the arrival of the white man in these territories. The performance works specifically with my body, as a central axis, using the Wu\u00f1elfe (Dawn Lucero or Venus): iconography associated with resistance against the colonial process. An ambiguity emerges from my body which makes it difficult to assign me a gender. I do not define myself as a feminine nor masculine person. In my work, that space of “between” is a power to disrupt the prevailing binarism. Added to this, another important component of the performance was the sound. I use the kaswawillas, a ceremonial Mapuche instrument used to pray. The senses are an important part in this work. The smell, on the one hand, is central and initiates the performative act by sahuming herbs such as lemon verbena, rosemary and sage, species that refer to the purification of negatively charged places. I begin with this particular action to refer to that negative burden that colonialism left on our identities, which have been questioned and violated.<\/span><\/p>

Finally, another important point is the use of the colour blue. Framed as sacred, blue accounts for the relationship with the ancestors. Elicura Chihuailaf, a great Mapuche poet, comments that we come from the deep blue, that is why I use this colour, as a way of respecting my dissident ancestors, honouring them. In the performance I write with hair, I think of hair as a genderless material, but one that has been conditioned to be thought about very much in relation to the feminine. In the indigenous world, hair does not have that meaning, but others, much more poetic or strongly associated with identity. I decide to use the hair as a reference also to the colonisation of the body; indigenous men had to cut their hair to assimilate into the dominant culture. Hair is a place that evidences that coloniality. I write \u201cnon-binary\u201d with hair to say that before the invasion of these territories, gender was not binary.<\/span><\/p>

In the workshop <\/span>Insubordinate Bodies,<\/span><\/i> we review various references in the history of art in Latin America to question the whitewashed idea of \u200b\u200bLatin American art that exists in the visual arts, where racialized bodies have no voice or agency. In the workshop we reflect on how the body can be a support to think about the relationships of the world and resist colonialism. We thought about the importance of the senses in performances, in the artist’s contact with the spectators and, finally, we did actions that allowed us to think about how to represent the various existing possibilities, through the body.<\/span><\/p>

For me, both instances allowed me to expand my work to other territories. I think that allows the discussions to expand and, in the same way it gives space to think about the content of the work with more variants in mind. The artistic work is nourished and is not reduced only to its place of enunciation, but rather connected with others that do not necessarily inhabit the same place.<\/span><\/p>

Do you have in mind any particular impact that you would like to generate in your audience? What happened particularly with the participants of the workshop?<\/b><\/p>

I feel that the most important thing had to do with the impact that the pandemic had on the bodies. It was my first performance after the mandatory quarantine that we had to do and having contact with the audience again, with the public, was very powerful and moving. I felt like liberated after the action. There was a lot of energy accumulated since the time Covid appeared. I also feel that my work evokes the senses and, in the context of London, I think that all of that was important for the audience: the smell, the looks with the public and my own body. In the workshop I observed a lot of complicity. I think that the most important thing has to do with the fact that the body expresses itself, in relation to its physical qualities, according to how it was arbitrarily assigned in the world or in its own territory.<\/span><\/p>

What place does your identity occupy in your artistic practice? How is your territory of origin expressed in your work?<\/b><\/p>

For me it is important to speak from the place I live, with the layers and conditions that this implies, not to fictionalise my place, but to place it in a space that also inhabits certain contradictions. I do not come from a community, my indigenous experience has to do with the Mapuche diaspora, the forced migration that my grandparents had to carry out at an early age. So, my identity is permeated by all that, by mixtures, by intersections between the countryside and the city, etc. I think that all this experience calls or feels in tune with many other people from the diaspora of the world, beyond the Mapuche people themselves.<\/span><\/p>

My work is very local, it always has an important link with Wallmapu, which is the territory I always refer to, seeking to make a gesture, an invitation to the global, finding similarities and tensions with other places, thinking of colonialism as an oppression that It affects many people and groups.<\/span><\/p>

In a previous interview you said that your work connects with experiences of racism and racialization that are founded by the extreme violence of colonial history. Could you expand on this?<\/b><\/p>

It seems to me that the visual arts in general have left out of representation those stories that are not within the prevailing racial hegemony. Art is a very inbred space, where the presence of other bodies and identities is very recent. The visibility of indigenous peoples is also new. Other ways of looking had never been included. Only now can we give our own vision of what happened, how our grandparents, our ancestors were treated. I believe that this visibility has also contributed to new questions, to expanding questions to places that were previously unthinkable to question. In my work, I am interested in thinking a lot about the relationship with the past, based on archives, records that account for all the racism under which we were educated, all of us. It seems important to me to think about history in conflict, with the words that are indicated to narrate what happened: dispossession, rape and submission, in order to think of some way of bringing that past, in connection with the present, and questioning what is happening today and how the present is the product of a past marked by violence.<\/span><\/p>

Could you briefly tell us how the history of bodies and sexual identity in pre-colonial societies was shaped? What effects did colonialism have on this history?<\/b><\/p>

Before colonisation, there was not only the feminine and the masculine as rigid places for gender. Many archives give account of bodies that did not fit the binarism, that had other desires and sexualities, which was obviously frowned upon by the colonial Christian eye. The vast majority of these references speak of the sin of sodomy, that is, they endowed sexually diverse bodies as deviant, incorrect and affirmed that these practices should be annulled, exterminated. In several of these stories, death appears as the condemnation of sodomy. From this, one understands how that colonising gaze has also penetrated deeply into the history of indigenous peoples. We can evidence the impact it generated on gender roles that continue to be replicated as a result of that colonisation of desire and the body.<\/span><\/p>

Currently we observe in cultural institutions a great interest in including works by artists who reflect on the environment and native peoples. How can one resist what may be a fad\/opportunism and, at the same time, participate in the scene to enable discussion and genuine dialogue?<\/b><\/p>

This is a contradiction I’ve had to dwell on a lot lately. I feel that many spaces have taken advantage of artists to clean up their image, because they had no real interest in these issues and because, until recently, they seemed of little relevance to them. Suddenly, these themes begin to become more visible, more present in the now and that is when the institutions begin to fill quotas, so as not to be called racist and to give a progressive, inclusive image,<\/span> the latter being something that really shows how racist and exclusive their experiences are. I have decided more consciously to try to appear in places that are problematic for me, I think that those spaces should be taken over by other voices, telling what really happens.<\/span><\/p>

How was your experience working with Latin Elephant? Do you keep any special image in relation to the Latin communities living in London?<\/b><\/p>

I found it a very enriching experience to learn about the diaspora process that exists within the Latin community in London. I also highlight the importance of generating spaces for representation, for visibility, in a city that is constantly trying to unify everything. I think that image of resistance struck a deep chord with me. That need to establish relationships with people who shared the same territory to which we long to return or from which you had to leave due to conditions of impoverishment. These stories, on many occasions, are the stories that we have to deal with because they come from Latin America and it is something that we must work to change. I also feel that there is a lot of resistance through the body, the dance, the party and the joy shown by these expressions. The smells of food, the act of meeting and recognising oneself in a group seems to me, in turn, very significant.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"elementor_header_footer","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-407","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinelephant.org\/InhabitingSpaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinelephant.org\/InhabitingSpaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinelephant.org\/InhabitingSpaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinelephant.org\/InhabitingSpaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinelephant.org\/InhabitingSpaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/latinelephant.org\/InhabitingSpaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":413,"href":"https:\/\/latinelephant.org\/InhabitingSpaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/407\/revisions\/413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinelephant.org\/InhabitingSpaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}