Todos somos Uno / Und Alles sind wir eins
Solo Show at Proyect Space Mommsen35, Berlin.
project funded BY Fondart, Chile.
June - August 2021
The exhibition Todos somos uno/Und alle sind wir eins seeks to confront the German public with ancestral Andean imagery through a piece composed of 49 modules of cork sheets suspended in space, recreating a Wiphala.
The Wiphala is a square flag containing the seven colours of the rainbow in equal parts. The harmonious emblem expresses unity and is shared by several South American cultures. This symbol is much more than a flag, it is the representation of the Andean philosophy, in which space, time and energy constitute a whole. In this way, the project recognises the philosophy of the indigenous Latin American peoples as a vital and essential ideology, one that reconnects us with the origin of the cosmos.
Each module of this flag depicts a "Guñelve", an eight-pointed star similar to the Tartessian star, and an important part of Mapuche iconography. This star would also have been used to design the first flag of Chile, representing the combination of European and indigenous traditions.
On the reverse, we can see 49 pairs of open eyes that speak of a living and attentive people. They point to a culture that is present, collective and united in the geographical diversity of the Andes.
On the floor of the space, a carpet will be created in situ using geometric motifs that reoccur in Andean textiles. It will exist in conjunction with the Wiphala to exalt it and welcome it to this new place, generating a crossing between what we find above and below, and connecting us in a natural way with the sky and the earth.
THE POWER OF SYMBOLS
Daniela von DamarosIt was on a hot day, in the late summer of 2019, when I first met Amalia Valdés and told her about my recent journey. It was a spiritual journey, guided by the questions of my origin, my identity.
Recapitulating our conversation today, I can say that it was characterized by an extraordinary atmosphere.
An openness, mutual curiosity and unrestrained listening allowed us to immerse ourselves in the space that opened up between us. It was a different space from the real one. The visible environment disappeared and with it the people around us. What I felt were the values that lay in that space between us, based on the interpersonal gestures that we shared and therefore connected us. These were things that can only be experienced and remain hidden from the bare eye.
This moment of a touch was, without me being aware of it, also an entry into the artistic work of Amalia Valdés. In her work process, guided by questions similar to mine, the artist explores our earthly existence.
The pictorial worlds that emerge are symbolic in nature, acting as signposts to such connecting spaces and channeling the power that lies within them. In this way, the artist makes visible and thus perceptible what else exists beyond the materialistic world.
Amalia Valdés' creative process is guided in equal parts intuitively as well as by constants. Against the backdrop of the cultures of her native continent of South America, the artist recurrently incorporates millennia-old symbols into her pictorial world, which she weaves together, acting as a kind of medium, into unique and infinite variations. One of these constants in her characteristic geometric-abstract and rhythmic stylistics is the Chakana, the "Cross of the Andes" or also called "Inca Cross":
The most common representation of the symbol, which has been documented for more than three thousand years, is that of a cross with three steps on each side and a point or hole in the center. The four directions symbolize the four cardinal points of the Inca empire, the hole in the center the navel of the world, namely Cusco, the capital of the Inca.1 The steps between the bars represent the three-way division of the world into the underworld (Ukhu Pacha), the world of men (Kay Pacha) and the world of the gods or upper world (Hanaq Pacha). The three stages symbolize not only the three different worlds but also their animal representatives. The condor embodies the world of the gods and justice. The human world is symbolized by the puma, which stands for strength, and the underworld is embodied by the snake with its wisdom.2 Chakanas with 6 levels on each side have also been found, which again suggests that the representation of the chakana can be handled flexibly and with little rigidity.
Her latest work "Todos somos uno/ And we are all one" consists of a series of individual images whose coloration at first glance recalls that of the seven chakras (energy centers) according to Far Eastern teachings. While the shape of an octagonal star goes back to a Mapuche symbol, the work as an overall
of 7x7, refers to the Whipala: the symbol and at the same time the flag of the indigenous peoples of the Andes.3 Compared to the meaning of the Chakana, which connects spheres, the Whipala represents a harmonious whole of the indigenous peoples of South American nations. The artist emphasizes this unifying aspect by depicting eyes on the reverse. The proportion of eye colors reflects their frequency in occurrence worldwide.
With the motif of the eye and the use of ancient symbols, the artist points to the ancestors who are constantly present and whose wisdom is preserved in it. While on the basis of the myth of the "evil eye", which has developed since ancient times worldwide in different cultural circles independently of each other4, the thesis of a universal symbolic language can be established, the artist transfers the symbols with the use of different materials, such as aluminum, clay, cork, paper or textiles, back into a precise temporal and local context. More than that, they anchor the viewer through reflections and tactile stimuli.
What created that special moment back then? We both decided to focus more on a connection than on ourselves. The meaning of it is the same in small as in big: Connections let boundaries dissolve, between bodies, the times and spheres. Everything moves closer. Everything becomes one.
