SANDRA MONTERROSO
Black Rivers.
Decolonial Methodologies for healing trough artistic practice.
This researches depart from a “border thinking” which has a place of enunciation that has its origin in Latin America, particularly in Guatemala. Guatemala has a large indigenous populations in relative terms (over 40%), mainly composed of 22 ethnic-linguistic communities of Mayan origin. I am interested in improve my artistic practice in a playful exercise of qualitative research, to investigate deeply colonial wounds that are still open in Guatemala, to make the connections with contexts, cultures and art. The first wound to analyze is the Spanish colonization 500 hundred years ago, the main root of the hatred of indigenous origin and racism until now. The second open wound are the injustices of Civil War (1954- 1996) left; which lasted 36 years and was a genocide where over 200, 000 victims and forced disappearances were done under a terrorism of state, whose main objective was the extermination of the Indigenous population. The third open wound is the still existing colonial system which added to the other wounds load yearning project imposition of modern progress that also loaded a capitalist system whose inequalities result in high levels of poverty. This will be part of a compilation named “Book of Time” with texts and poems. The visual artistic practice is a video installation made in the Maya Q’eqchi’ community working close at the videos that for the last ten years I have been created for my artistic practice that are related to Decolonial aesthetics, acquired act of my life as a Maya Q’eqchi’ descendent. The recognition of this legacy is to show society how trough art that is a way of heeling and lead with the implications for the creation of a new “mestiza”. And therefore to create a Decolonial methodology within an autobiographical and environmental aspects of the context not only in the Maya Q’qchi’ community also in Guatemala city that lead me to relate Coloniality – Modernity – Decoloniality as three concepts related to heal but more in the sense of Self determination meaning proposed by Linda Tuhiwai for heal the opened wounds that are still open, survive, recovery, mobilization, transformation and decolonization purpose trough the artistic practice it self.
SANDRA MONTERROSO. Master Degree in Design Process, in UPAEP, Puebla, Mexico. Graphic Design in Guatemala. Philosophy for Peace studies in Spain. With eight individual exhibitions, and over thirty international collective exhibitions, she has win several prizes and scholarships.
