Wiño Tüwun
Viaje al origen
Thesis
(2021)
Thinking about new forms of tourism makes tourism evolve, and even more, it enriches it. Barcelona has always shown an interest in other cultures, having been the host of the Universal Exhibition in 1888 already showed Barcelona’s interest in making other peoples known and admired.
Although Spain has immense cultural ties with Latin America, these ties have always been more economic. Recognizing the existence of these peoples, to make known their culture is not something new, today we must learn from these peoples because their claims show us that the links with the Earth are sacred, they recharge, develop, and cohabit integrally with the flower and fauna of their environment. This tourism is rich in human values, values of respect and sees in other cultures a source of learning, a source of recognition of the people called a few centuries ago «Savages» because their development was different, it was more human and developed with respect for Nature. Today the world is suffering the consequences of the destruction of the environment, this time it is up to us to learn from these cultures so that we can live in balance with the environment and so that we can respect other peoples through these cultural values, rich in knowledge, rich in respect for others. These values, these cultures, are the most important elements that I wanted to transmit in this project.
TO CREATE AWARENESS OF THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE CULTURES IN THE WORLD TODAY, FOCUSING ON THE MAPUCHE FROM CHILE, TO REACH A NEW CONCEPT OF CULTURAL SUSTAINABILITY AND NOT OF EXTINCTION.
The native cultures are being forgotten. Being the essence of a country it should be put forward and have a greater importance because we have a lot to learn from them also about the story of their countries. On the other hand, one must remember that every great nation that exists today comes from the roots of the original peoples. Today, and for centuries, the original indigenous people of Latin American countries have been struggling for their recognition as nations, for their rights and for unity in diversity. Indeed, they have a conception of life that is different from the individualistic modern world in which one lives; harmony and balance is essential. The Mapuche people are one of Chile’s best known indigenous people, both for their social and demographic weight and for their strong sense of cultural identity, who have historically found ways to resist and adapt to the dynamics of border contacts with Spaniards and Chileans. The idea would be to propose a project that, through an immersive exhibition that will happen as a journey through the exposition space to experience more fully the culture on exhibit , could create an awareness of the indigenous Mapuche people but also a mean of learning about their culture with all the benefits that this implies. The solution will now be created for the Mapuche community but it will be applicable for any other native nation of the world.
After analyzing the key points of my research and realizing the problems that are still linked to the promotion of indigenous peoples, I decided to find a solution that would benefit them without disturbing their daily lives. Indeed, the touristic initiatives that are set up today to make these communities known, are not really completely for them (income that does not go entirely to them but that a part goes to the organizations or governments that help them to develop these initiatives, the indigenous people are not actors of these initiatives but are still sometimes put down to the status of victims or strange foreigners that we go to see by curiosity and not by desire to learn from them for examples).
My idea was to create a space where time allows us to observe, feel and listen to their stories, their lives, their cosmology, their claims, this kind of concept would allow us to have a global vision of a people, not just a part of it, it would allow us to understand and respect a people.
For this purpose, I decided to choose the four strongest aspects of the Mapuche culture and to represent them sensitively in an exhibition in the form of a path. Each different aspect will be represented in a space of its own, spaces built inside Utopia 126 to be able to also enjoy this particular place and full of history.
Utopia 126, is a creative space used as a venue for ephemeral exhibitions but also for artistic events and mainly for filming purposes. I chose this place because it has a history, as it has been part of the Barcelona landscape since 1906, having first been a fabric factory. Although it has not been renovated, it has kept its old charm and still transmits its history. That’s why I chose this place, because being in a modern city that moves, this space seems frozen in time and by its walls tells us a story, its original history.
The first space in which we find ourselves almost immediately immersed, has been designed as a walkway in the middle of the forest. The idea was to represent the environment in which the Mapuche live so that the visitor finds himself in this place without having to travel. The forest being extremely important for them (food, medicinal but also spiritual resource) I had to represent it in a way that people will remember it; the ground is covered with earth, the trees are represented by long fabrics that hang from the ceiling on which are projected dynamic images of typical trees of Auracania (Region in which the Mapuche live mainly). In addition to the visual aspect, I wanted the visitor to feel even more like transported in this environment and I wanted to recreate the atmosphere of this place by its smell and its climate; smell of pine and poleo are very present when we approach Mapuche villages as well as this feeling of humidity when we walk between the trees. Each person will find himself in the middle of Auracania having to find his way in the middle of this virgin forest, having the fabrics that touch their skins as the foliage of the trees, leaving a trace of its perfume.
The second space will represent a more spiritual aspect of the Mapuche culture. Cosmology is essential to them and is part of their daily life; it is also what can dictate spiritual and social practices of extreme importance to the community. They also find certain signs, if we can call them that, from spirits that coexist with animals and humans in the natural world. These spiritual notions are complex, but as explained above, they are an integral part of the Mapuche culture, and if we want to understand it, we must learn about cosmology and how they can interact with it, and why it is so important. For this reason, I have decided to pursue this space with the idea of sensory experience to make the visitors live the culture fully. The cosmology space is therefore made up of an interactive light installation on the ceiling which will represent it and which will be accompanied by an explanatory voice-over. People will be able to lie down on long «benches» made of wood (primary material in the construction of Mapuche furniture) because to understand and live this concept it is necessary to do it as a Mapuche; we contemplate the sky and not just look at it, that’s why I insisted the visitors to lie down to put themselves in condition to really observe the stars.
The third space is located in another room of Utopia 126, being very long it was possible to divide it in two parts to be able to appreciate the place while following its course of indigenous experience. It was also a way to convey a message, to make a parallelism in the same voice as the project, that two cultures, one extremely old and one more recent, can coexist and can enrich each other as the two spaces do here. A long ramp crossing the first part of the room leads us to a kind of big box made of wood and painted with a particular blue; this blue represents the Mapuche cosmology and is present on the Mapuche flags, it represents their culture. The floor of this space is slightly elevated so that the visitor feels as if he is transported into another dimension, almost floating, which will allow him to unconsciously become even more impregnated with the experience that he is going to have in this one. Once in this new space, the visitor is immersed in the culture and history of the Mapuche people through the projection on the floor and walls of images that explain their history but also their current claims (a subject of great importance nowadays not only for the Mapuche but also for all indigenous cultures in the world). The visitor finds himself immersed in the documentary film, he will have the sensation of being part of this history and thus impregnate himself even more with the Mapuche values.
Last but not least, the fourth space is located in a part of Utopia 126 open to the outside and represents a more social aspect of the culture. It is a circular bar covered by the traditional roof of a Mapuche house (called Ruka); roof made with wood and straw. In addition, the bar is built with the same materials used by the community; raw earth, raw wood counter and the seats are a higher version of a Mapuche stool; El wanko, also carved in wood. The bar is surrounded by a false fireplace containing a fire made of steam and light, as in the ruka one sits in a circle around the central fire. Why a bar as the last space? The idea was to be able to experience the Mapuche culture once again by eating and drinking typical food around the fire as the community members do. Besides the taste experience, there is also the Mapuche social aspect that is represented; it is also around the fire in the Ruka that stories are told, important meetings are held for the village but also with other representatives from other regions, important and political topics are discussed, ceremonies are held and many other aspects. Unconsciously, the visitor will sit at this bar and tell his experience to the people he came with or to the strangers sitting around the bar with him, the circular shape inciting contact with the other people, he will be immersed again in the heart of the culture but also participate without realizing it in a Mapuche tradition.
My project, being an elaborated strategy for all the indigenous communities of the world, can be a good starting point to change the way the world looks at them. Indeed, the knowledge that we have nowadays is mostly academic or superficial, by making people live the culture, by immersing them in it, their views can change more strongly because it is by living things that people feel more affected. This will also bring a deeper knowledge of a culture, to better understand it. While working on my project, I learned a lot of new things that I didn’t know even though I am Mapuche myself, so I can deduce that this could happen with someone who doesn’t know this culture and who will come to see the exhibition. On the other hand, my project will be able to reach a wider public because being an immersive exhibition more people will be able to come and see it and learn about a culture. This will allow to know a new community without having to travel and if one day the visitors have the chance to go on the field they will go with a different look; having already had the experience of their culture through the exhibition, understanding it better, when they will meet these people they will go from equal to equal, from human to human and no more from traveler attracted by the curiosity to people said «inferior».
These communities are not inferior, on the contrary, their perceptions of the world, of life have much to teach us about our relationship with others but also with the Earth. We owe it to ourselves to become aware of their knowledge and to listen to them because if any culture can enrich us, it is theirs and not vice versa.