Inty and Yauri Muenala
Rishpa Tigrashpa, Ir y Volver; Hilar el pasado, presente y futuro, el arte y la vida
Catalogue Text
Rishpa Tigrashpa, Ir y Volver; is an interactive installation that presents the results of an artistic investigation into the restitution of proper names in the Kichwa language, undertaken by the Kichwa people as a fundamental part of the process of cultural, spiritual, and political reclamation that began in the late 1970s in Ecuador. These reaffirmations of identity reveal and denounce the violent colonial strategies that still persist, strategies of denial, subordination, and discrimination against the diversity of Indigenous languages that safeguard profound philosophical meanings. Hence, the importance of recovering the language and reclaiming Kichwa names as part of the process of healing colonial wounds within the framework of resistance and self-determination of Indigenous peoples and nationalities.
The work stems from the personal and cultural experience of my brother, Inty Muenala. In 1978, officials at the Civil Registry did not allow our parents to register his name in Kichwa, as it was not considered a Hispanic, Catholic, or Anglo-Saxon name. However, when my brother turned 18, he went to the civil registry to legally change his name from Álvaro to Inty, which means Sun in our Kichwa language. Identifying similar experiences, we proceeded to speak with and interview seventeen Kichwa peers from three generations, whose individual experiences are complemented by political and intellectual leadership and cultural and artistic activism. Therefore, these individual processes, which are not isolated from collective realities and experiences, are complex and reveal moments of vulnerability, but also of profound identification, vindication, and pride.
Beyond the aesthetic representation, the installation combines materials and practices closely linked to the ancestral technology of weaving on a loom with demands for political rectification and linguistic and spiritual reaffirmation. We have intervened on 18 flying shuttles of a mechanical loom with bracelets woven from thread and cord to create 18 interactive devices. The pieces evoke the memory of the craft and the accumulated knowledge, preserved and continually transformed in the textile production of our ancestors. In turn, the bracelets contain significant information about each person and carry memories that resist oblivion and challenge the denial of language. Together, they express the collective desire to raise our voices for the right to difference, identity, and dignity, to be the continuity of our peoples and to proudly bear our sacred names that refer to the forces of nature and elements that give balance to existence, characteristic of Andean cosmology.
The title Rishpa Tikrashpa refers to the constant back-and-forth movement of the loom’s shuttles as they weave the fabrics. This circular action allows us to evoke the philosophical principle of historical continuity that emerges from the Kichwa language; Causanacunchik “We have lived, we live, and we will live,” as a metaphor for weaving together the past, present, and future, art and life.”
Yauri Muenala (1987)
Visual artist, educator, and cultural activist. Master’s degree in Visual Anthropology from the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO). He won second place in the Salón de Julio Acquisition Prize (2024). Winner in the research category of the Mariano Aguilera National Prize (2022-2023). In his artistic practice, he explores the links between traditional art and intercultural collaborative practices. He has exhibited in Mexico, Italy, France, the United States, and Bolivia. Author of the book Kikinkunawan: Common Visualities.
Inty Muenala (1978)
Visual artist, mindalae (Andean spiritual leader), and cultural manager. He studied Art at the Central University of Ecuador. A multidisciplinary artist, he frequently employs painting, video art, and ritual performance. He explores the spiritual relationships of Andean thought with symbolic geometry, eco-social issues, identity, and migration. He participated in the 10th Cuenca International Biennial (2009). He has exhibited in Peru, the United States, France, Italy, and Russia. He has received an award at the Intercontinental Biennial of Indigenous Art.
Jury Statement
The jury considered that the installation powerfully speaks to the core concerns of the prize by centering a local process of name restitution and thoughtfully and respectfully inviting audiences to witness such a process by way of sober, interactive yet organic devices. Inty and Yauri Muenala’s work brings together the practice of weaving with a process of identity reaffirmation, which is simultaneously personal and collective. In doing so, the artists invite us to reconsider the political dimension of names, allowing us to learn more about a decades-long struggle for self-determination through language revitalization.
As audiences pull the threads of the lanzaderas, Castilian names give way to recuperated Kichwa names—Kichwa being Indigenous people and language present in the Andean region, including Ecuador—alongside the year of birth and the year in which the person had their Kichwa name inscribed in the civil registry.
The project is grounded in Inty Muenala’s own process of name recuperation, as well as in-depth interviews with Kichwas of different generations, who shared the meanings embedded in their names. The thoughtful work with community members is reflected in the delicacy of the woven bracelet, the sober nature of the lanzaderas and the contrasting vibrant colors of the bracelets.
More than simple name carriers, the bracelets materialize knowledge accumulated through generations. Technology, understood as practice and device, is present in its spiritual dimension, resisting market-driven uses and the homogenizing logic of colonial-era civil registries. The steady cadence of the lanzaderas, as expressed in the Kichwa concept Rishpa Tikrashpa, resonates, as the artists point out, with historical continuity and permanence.
