Quinchamalium Chilense

Quinchamalium Chilense is an installation resulting from the collaborative work between the artist Josefina Guilisasti and a group of artists who represent the ancient pottery traditions from Quinchamalí, which is currently nominated to be honored as part of the World Heritage sites.

This artisan tradition is a testimony of the time before the Colonial period, and the result of the miscegenation between the Mapuche and the first generation of Europeans. From this hybridization, the specificity of their ways and tales emerged. The huaso and the guitarrera, two of the zone’s typical pieces, contain within them, stories of how the inhabitants understand their culture, in regards to history and the other territories.

Starting from an investigation about Quinchamalí and its artisans, carried out by the artist Josefina Guilisasti, together with anthropologist Belén Roca and a group of fifteen pottery artists from the area with ages ranging between 28 and 75, began a work together in which, through drawing, created a dialog in relation to the cultural heritage value of their objects, and the possibilities of creation regarding customary practices. In this dialogue, Guilisasti introduced different references and sources to female and male potters, mainly Botany books. The group, composed by Victorina Gallegos, Teorinda Cerón, Flor Caro, Daniel Villeuta, Silvana Figueroa, Gastón Montti, Marcela Rodríguez, Mónica Venegas, Nayadet Núñez, Eugenia Sepúlveda, Carmen Romero, Regina Pino, Cintia García, Luis Pérez Sepúlveda and Nancy Mariangel, worked focused on the quinchamalí plant or Quinchamalium chilense, a native herbaceous that gives name to the town, and is part of the indigenous medicine. Given the possibilities that the work with clay can provide, they were also urged, maintaining the due respect for their traditions, to innovate. Through the introduction of botanical references from naturalism books, the potters are stimulated to “rebel” against what is pre-established, in search of their own path, which will allow them to leave behind a trace of possibilities for future generations.