GAYO + CRAFTING THE FIELD 09 Inauguration

Some scenes from the Inauguration night October 27 2023.
Melanie Dizon
November 16, 2023

GAYO + CRAFTING THE FIELD 09

OPENING NIGHT

With Emily Urquía Sebastián, Salome Sebastián Vargas, Segundo Teodoro Sebastián Vargas and Agricultura Celeste.

Emily, Segundo, Salome, Agricultura Celeste and Jack Wheeler / Photo: Davis Torres (©2023 Xapiri Ground)

On the 27th of October, the opening night for two exhibitions took place at our Xapiri Ground Gallery; GAYO remembering the clay spirit and Crafting the Field series 09 with invited guests from the Yine native community of Monte Salvado in the Las Piedras region of the southeast Peruvian Amazon.
To open the evening, we held a presentation with Emily, Salome, and Segundo (Monte Salvado community) where they spoke about the tradition of their ceramic artform more specifically represented by their clay spirit "Gayo" along with some behind the scenes footage of the workshop held with Xapiri Ground in their community as part of the process of recuperating the artform.

On exhibition in Sala 2 is GAYO, where you can see the process behind the recuperation of this ancestral ceramic tradition with a focus on the masks that characterize their mythical spirit of the clay. A collection of 11 masks are on display which are a part of our longterm project with the Yine that we may continue to develop these techniques with them.

Photo: Davis Torres (©2023 Xapiri Ground)

Photo: Davis Torres (©2023 Xapiri Ground)

Photo: Davis Torres (©2023 Xapiri Ground)

Salome and Emily in the exhibition sala / Photo: Davis Torres (©2023 Xapiri Ground)

Immediately following this was a live performance of the piece composed by Agricultura Celeste (aka Joan Rukmali De la colina Román) for Crafting the Field series 09 accompanied by vocals from Emily and field photography by Davis Torres.

Agricultura Celeste / Photo: Davis Torres (©2023 Xapiri Ground)

Agricultura Celeste and Emily Urquía Sebastián / Photo: Davis Torres (©2023 Xapiri Ground)

Photo: Davis Torres (©2023 Xapiri Ground)

Photo: Davis Torres (©2023 Xapiri Ground)

We'd like to thank the community of Monte Salvado for opening those weeks to us and our team that we were able to learn about their traditions and their way of life today, to Emily, Salome, and Segundo for sharing this special night with us, and to Agricultura Celeste for activating our imaginations with his creative soundscape inspired by the Yine people.
Photo: Davis Torres (©2023 Xapiri Ground)

Read more about the GAYO exhibition here.

Read more about CRAFTING THE FIELD series 09 here.