Constelación-Churo: distinctive symbols of each of the Kichwa artists participating in the Mutual Learning Encounter-Nakuk Yachakuy, 2023. Photo credit: Ricardo Guanín
Yauri Muenala is an artist and teacher and is currently a cultural activator at Universidad Yachay Tech. He has been a teacher and researcher at the Universidad Nacional de Educación UNAE and has participated as a lecturer in undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in Ecuador and internationally. He has a master’s in Visual Anthropology from the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, FLACSO in Ecuador.
His artistic practice examines the relationship between healthy art and collaborative intercultural practices. His work has been shown in countries such as: Ecuador, Italy, France, USA, Brazil, Bolivia and Colombia. He is the author of the academic book Kikinkunawan Visualidades Comunes –La autorrepresentación en la práctica audiovisual de realizadores kichwa otavalos como estrategia para la continuidad histórica de su identidad étnico-cultura [Kikinkunawan Shared Visualities: Self-representation in the audiovisual practice of Otovalo-Kichwa makers as a strategy for the historical continuity of their ethnic-cultural identity]. Co-founder of the Sumakruray Art Collective.