“Daughters of the Water” by Ana González and Ruven Afanador, Bogotá

The exhibition Daughters of the Water shows 32 portraits of indigenous women, men and children from Colombian territories where the communities have been isolated in the desert and on the mountain side throughout the country during five decades of armed conflict in Colombia. Plastic artist Ana González intervenes the photographs by Ruven Afanador making use of embroidery, fabric, texts and drawings in homage to the ancestral customs and knowledge of the women from the indigenous communities Arhuaca (Sierra Nevada in Santa Marta), Wayuu (Guajira), Guna-Dule (Urabá in Antioquia) and Misak (Silvia in the Cauca Valley).

The portraits, exhibited in the Santa Clara Museum in Bogotá – a church, seat of a female Catholic order during the 17th and 18th century – create a dialogue between the religious iconography of the colonial period and the tradition of the enclosed nuns of Santa Clara. The secluded space reveals a common trait between the portrayed indigenous women and the nuns who inhabited the Royal Convent of Santa Clara during the colonial period.

The exhibition is a reflection on the bond between these indigenous communities with nature and with the preservation of water as a source of life. Daughters of the Water is open to the public in the Santa Clara Museum until 16 September 2018.

More information here.