Cantos vuelan originates from research carried out as part of historian Laura Vargas’s Marilynn Thoma Postdoctoral Fellowship on the portable altarpiece depicting the Crucifixion on Mount Calvary. This artwork, an archetypal icon of 18th-century New Granada and created by an anonymous Ecuadorian artist, is currently displayed at the National Museum of Colombia.
The natural setting surrounding the images on the altarpiece includes paintings and wood carvings of plants, birds, and insects that connect the earthly world with the heavenly one. The birds shown have features that link them to specific species found in the equatorial region. The artists who made this altar aimed to give each of these creatures a distinct character by observing nature, thereby creating a sense of variety and realism.
For this exhibition, Vargas has invited artist Julia Bejarano to create a poetic and dreamlike sound installation featuring the songs of the birds from the altarpiece and to spatialize their sounds throughout the museum—like a choir—thereby fostering an interdisciplinary encounter between historical research, artistic creation, and ornithology. Additionally, visitors will encounter two optical objects, artworks that engage in a dialogue with the space and the images of the birds on the altarpiece.
