Mayan textiles serve as an ancient legacy of a civilization that continues to thrive in several Latin American countries. Continuing the Extraordinary Textiles exhibition series that began two years ago, Casa de América Latina aims to share part of this legacy through the solo exhibition "Weaving the Landscape, The Ancestral Weave of the Contemporary Landscape," by Guatemalan artist Antonio Pichillá, which opened on May 7, with the artist in attendance. This represents a new collaboration between the Colombian gallery Elvira Moreno and Casa de América Latina, curated by Francisco Arévalo.
This exhibition features a selection of the most iconic works from the artist's body of work, which, rooted in his worldview as a Mayan Tzʼutujil, invites us to explore the landscape as a territory of identity and memory, expressed through thread, wood, stone, pigment, and video, blending tradition with contemporary art. His work revisits the act of weaving as an art form, not merely a craft, emphasizing its various phases, from fabric design to execution. In pieces such as "Fuego y Agua," "Abuela y Abuelo," or "Kukulkán," the artist references the transcendence of Mayan mythology and knowledge, serving as a metaphor for cultural resistance, where each piece extends the territory and embodies the wisdom passed down through generations, reminding us that the landscape is not just something to be observed, but also inhabited, woven, and reimagined.
