On the return of the enganglement of cutural and artistic processes of the Colombian Pacific (and beyond) with Más Arte Más Acción

From November 29 to December 4, 2021, the #LumbungNuquí was held in Nuquí, Chocó, a meeting organized by the Fundación Más Arte Más Acción (MAMA) to share and strengthen the cultural processes with which they have become entangled. Lumbung Nuquí brought together the projects and organizations that are part of the MAMA ecosystem to exchange experiences, share perspectives and think about the future, within the framework of the invitation to participate in documenta fifteen, the contemporary art event that takes place every five years, and which will take place between June and September 2022 in Kassel, Germany.

For the first time in its trajectory of more than 10 years working in the Colombian Pacific and beyond, Más Arte Más Acción invited the groups and organizations with which it has established ties of trust and collaboration to the Lumbung Nuquí. We call it an entanglement because different ethnic, gender, class, artistic practices, thoughts and political conceptions converge. They meet in ways that are sometimes harmonious and sometimes chaotic, in consensus and dissent.  They embrace tensions and are open to a multiplicity of views. attended by cultural and artistic organizations and groups from the biogeographic Chocó (Quibdó, Bahía Solano, Buenaventura and Nuquí), mainly people of African descent; managers and artists of the music and art scene of Bogotá and Cali; representatives of the Organization of Indigenous Peoples of the Colombian Amazon (OPIAC); and members of collectives from Indonesia and Mexico that are part of the Arts Collaboratory network; as well as members of Ruangrupa, the artistic team of documenta fifteen. 

The Lumbung Nuquí revolved around the active projects of Más Arte Más Acción that have been built with different organizations and groups over recent years. They are also the projects that will have a space to expand both their processes and the questions during the 100-day programme in Kassel, Germany (June 18 – September 25, 2022):

• Postcards from the Future, an exchange between collectives from Buenaventura and Nuquí that through documentary film reflect on the notion of “progress”, mega-ports and the future of these territories.
  
• Possible dialogues, which connects social and environmental leaders, activists, artists and academics who have common interests related to climate change and climate justice.
  
• Atrato Collaborations, exchanges between members of Más Arte Más Acción, cultural organizations from Quibdó and artists from Switzerland and Germany on extractivist and neocolonial relations guided by the question of what the Atrato River means as a subject of biocultural rights.
  
• Unpostponable, a series of artistic residencies between collective and organizational processes of Nuquí and artistic processes from other contexts that puts in the center the ways of living and being of the biodiverse territory of the Gulf of Tribugá. 

• Chocó as a School (title in process), a publication that will gather the ideas that have guided the MAMA programme directed by Ana Garzón, with contributions from artists and thinkers who have been part of MAMA’s residencies and projects.

During these days, significant experiences were achieved in the exhibition of each process and the organizations deepened their artistic fields and practices, expanding their questions and creating future linkages.

Mareia and Cráter Invertido, for example, proposed writing and drawing exercises based on the idea of imaginative practices on the territory, in this case invoking the Atrato River and the zoteas (medicinal/vegetable gardens) of the Pacific. Sonidos Enraizados, Tambacum and Ruangrupa, presented actions that managed to move and connect with the positivity of the groups. Motete activated a reading of children’s writings about the Atrato River and also cinema, animation in charge from different collectives and video art were part of the presentation. Más Arte Más Acción, Tura Hip Hop, Yemayá Producciones and the work of Tahuanty Jacanamijoy, Henry Gonzalez together with Fernando Arias allowed us to delve into sensitivities and traumas that emerged to generate some discomfort in the space, which have created opportunities for deconstruction and reflections in the team and the MAMA ecosystem.

The programme also allowed us to tour the territory from the perspective of the host collectives of Nuquí, recognizing the complexity of life on the beaches, the mangroves, the jungle, the rivers and the sea, and the immense value of the community and popular processes of the Afro and indigenous communities of the Gulf of Tribugá. It was the biodiverse forest the guardian of the closing of the Lumbung Nuquí, ombligándonos (ancestral practice of territorial connection) and invoking the ancestors who have inhabited La Chocoana, also known as the Chocó Base of Más Arte Más Acción.

The organizations and artists invited to the Lumbung Nuquí were:

Amazink (Bogotá) / Andrés Vélez (Armenia) / Arts Collaboratory (International) / Asociación Para Las Investigaciones Culturales Del Chocó – ASINCH, Corporaloteca (Quibdó) / Colectivo de Comunicaciones En Puja (Nuquí) / Colectivo Puerto Creativo (Buenaventura) / Comunidad de Coquí (Nuquí) / Corporación Cultural Motete (Quibdó) / Corporación Pacífico Mujer (Nuquí)/ Corregimiento de Coquí (Nuquí) / Cráter Invertido (Mexico)/ Ericka Flórez (Cali) / Fundación Mareia (Quibdó) / Fundación Tura Hip Hop (Buenaventura)/ Interlokal Lumbung (International) / Jatiwangi Arts Factory (Indonesia) / Leonel Vásquez (Cundinamarca) / Lugar a Dudas (Cali) / Organización Nacional de los Pueblos Indígenas de la Amazonía Colombiana – OPIAC (Amazonas) / Sonidos Enraizados (Bogotá) / Tambacúm (Nuquí) / Yemayá Producciones (Buenaventura).

During these days we shared the events through our website and social networks. We now invite you to join these discussions in future spaces. How do we make coexistence a practice of sustainability and build a future in which we fit diverse ways of living? How do we take advantage of the space of documenta fifteen for this purpose? Some key points:

• Connecting documenta and the 100 days of Kassel with the agendas of the collectives and organizations of the ecosystem, so that these agendas can be connected with the agendas of other partners of the Lumbung ecosystem who will be present in Kassel. This is a way to think of possibilities for sustainability as we take advantage of the 100 days.
  
• To be relevant in the context of Kassel by collaborating with processes and specific issues in that context. This is why we have decided to work with wood from forests around Germany infested by termites. This speaks of the urgent struggle for climate justice demanded by the peoples of the tropics. The systematic deforestation is directly related to the extractive economic model with the countries importing raw materials, the forests of the Chocó and the Amazon are the most threatened and where the cycles of violence are reproduced.
  
• Generate spaces of care and design ethical protocols that, from anti-racist and anti-patriarchal perspectives, guide the processes and methodologies of working with an interethnic ecosystem – in which many people are racialized, women and/or of diverse gender identities. This is necessary in the face of a collective care policy during the days in Kassel, where the existence of extreme right-wing groups has been recognized and where cultural and language barriers can affect the time of sharing in this space.
  
• To open a space for pedagogy and discussion on the different perspectives of the effects of racial and gender violence that will allow us to establish an enriching dialogue among the diversity of people and organizations that were present at the Lumbung Nuquí. The partners of Mareia and Yemayá have expressed their willingness to contribute to this school process, to which we hope to invite experts in anti-racist psycho-social processes to guide it methodologically.
  
• We are currently working on a seminar on art and extractivism in collaboration with the Center for Latin American Studies (CELA) at the University of Kassel, in which we hope to connect with the community of academics, students and activists from Germany who are thinking critically about North-South relations.
  
• Finally, we will continue to participate in the working groups convened by the Lumbung network: Kios (an initiative to commercialize the products of the participants), Gallery (an initiative for a cooperative gallery that allows us to develop political and sustainability strategies by rethinking the notions of value), AC School (connecting with the initiative of the Arts Collaboratory Network, which will also participate in this edition of documenta), Assembly of Human and Non-human Delegates of the World (a project organized by Jatiwangi Arts Factory from Indonesia), among others.

The #LumbungNuquí is an initiative of the Fundación Más Arte Más Acción, part of documenta fifteen’s Inter-lokal Lumbung Network and is possible thanks to the support of Goethe-Institut, Pro Helvetia South America, the Prince Claus Foundation, Arts Collaboratory network. Supported by the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program with funds from the Federal Foreign Office in the framework of the International Relief Fund for Organizations in Culture and Education. Special thanks to the Mayor’s Office of Nuquí and the Consejo General Comunitario Los Riscales.

#documentafifteen #LumbungNuquí #mezmerreMAMA #Lumbungmembers #EnmarañamientosMAMA #CompasMAMA. 

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For more detailed information about the everyday of our Lumbung Nuquí documentation we invite you to click the next link: