In this edition of ARAS Connections we present three different perspectives on the myth, art and ritual of South America. While attending the first ever IAAP conference in South America, in Buenos Aires, in 2022, I encountered Uruguayan artist Joaquin Torres Garcia’s “Inverted Map.” It served as a startling reminder of the need to emotionally and intellectually recalibrate—as he did visually—the ever-present Euro-centric lexicon. Torres participated in that Eurocentric dialogue and then rejected it. He was a contemporary and collaborator of such artistic luminaries as Gaudi and Kandinsky. But upon returning to his homeland, Torres established a visionary new art school, declaring as his credo, “our North, is the South.”  This perspective echoes a famed refrain from a poem written by his countryman, Mario Benedetti: El Sur También Existe, (The South Also Exists)—an oft repeated Latin American call for inclusion, set to music and made popular by musician and activist Joan Manuel Serrat.

The South Also Exists

(English translation by Paul Archer of 'El Sur También Existe' by Mario Benedetti)

With its worship of steel
its giant chimneys
its covert wisemen
its siren song
its neon skies
its christmas sales
its cults of god the father
and military epaulettes
with its keys to the kingdom
the north is the one in command

but here down
below ever-present hunger
rootles through the bitter fruit
of other people's decisions
while time passes
and parades pass
and other things get done
that the north permits
with enduring hope
the south also exists.

with its preachers
its poisonous gases
its Chicago school
its landowners
with their luxury clothes
on a skeleton of poverty
its depleted defense
its defense spent
spent on invasions
the north is the one in command

but here down
below hidden away
are men and women
who know what to hold onto
making the most of the sun
and also eclipses
setting aside the useless
and using what works
with its age-old faith
the south also exists

with its french horn
and its swedish academy
its american sauce
and its english tools
with all its missiles
and its encyclopedias
its star wars
and its lavish malice
with all its accolades
the north is the one in command

but here down below
close to the roots
is where memory
forgets nothing
and there are people living
and dying doing their utmost
and so between them they achieve
what was believed impossible
to make the whole world know
that the south also exists.

 

The conference galvanized a collective interest at ARAS to explore and develop the number of South American images, symbols, and myths presently underrepresented in the Archive.  With this objective in mind, we formed an exploratory team of analysts and candidates from the Andean countries of Colombia, Ecuador and Peru to encourage a more reciprocal south-north/north-south relationship. The initial working group will gather and analyze symbolic material from each country. Analysts or candidates belonging to other developing Jungian societies throughout South America who would like to contribute to this effort are asked to contact Allison Tuzo at ARAS or contact Cecilia Davila or Ana Tibau for Ecuador, Eduardo Carvallo or Monica Pinilla for Colombia, and Patricia Llosa for Peru.

Our initial efforts at “picture hunting,” as ARAS inspiratice Olga Frobe-Kapetyn labeled her own image gathering work, have been through research and visits to museums, universities and other academic and cultural institutions.  This brief video from a trip to the Museo Mindalae Otavalo in Ecuador provides an impression of the dialogues that are emerging.

 

We begin our exploration of Latin American myth and image with Colombian analyst Ines de la Ossa’s study of the myth of the Patasola, a one-legged woman who haunts the jungle. Through her work De la Ossa seeks to disentangle the archetypal roots of the undervaluation of the feminine in Colombian culture. She explores the exile of the feminine within the cultural complex as well as the inherent potential for redemption in its telling.

In the second piece we shift to Venezuelan analyst Eduardo Carvallo’s reverie on his initial encounter with pre-Columbian art. He muses about the possible meanings of three works of art chosen from Colombia and Ecuador, which are born out of the depths of oral tradition and an epistemology that is radically different from western understanding. His amplifications are a circumambulation of the art in an attempt to come into contact with its shrouded mystery and meaning.

The third offering is a short documentary video and travelogue essay that introduces the concept of Ayni, a central tenet of the Andean worldview of reciprocity and mutuality at every level of life, explored in relationship to an annual festival of the Aymara people of the Bolivian and Peruvian altiplano and filmed in the city of La Paz.

This edition of ARAS Connections initiates an exploration of a vast South American mythological territory and celebrates ARAS’s commitment to reciprocal cultural dialogue.