Ripanu Microbiome
Project developed during the NoLugar Residency in Sápara Territory, Community of Ripanu, Ecuadorian Amazon.
Microbioma de Ripanu has been exhibited at the Weilbauer Porras Archaeological Museum (Quito) as part of the group exhibition Nakusaka: la dueña del barro.
The mukawa is the Amazonian bowl used to drink Ukuyaku, a fermented beverage made from cassava and sweet potato. Ukuyaku is the result of collaboration among multiple organisms: the humans who prepare it, their microbiota, and the ferments, yeasts, and bacteria present in the environment. Likewise, artifacts are necessarily entangled with—and affected by—all the presences that inhabit an environment: organisms of various species (visible and invisible), inorganic matter and its physical composition, the residues and persistences of the past, as well as the spirits and energies that remain anchored to matter.
In Microbioma de Ripanu, the mukawas were used as receptacles for the growth of diverse life forms inhabiting the immediate surroundings of Ripanu. Made of clay, vegetal elements, and fungi, they were filled with “culture media” prepared from organic matter sourced locally: cassava starch, and sap from Wallis and Paparawa. They were then buried in different locations surrounding the community—the peripheral paths of the village, the riverbank, the forest. After two days, they were retrieved to produce a video documentation of the micro-landscapes that emerged from this multispecies coexistence. The mukawas are currently preserved at the Museo de las Cabañas de Ripanu, in the Sápara Nation.
Microbioma de Ripanu is a tribute to the practice of drinking Ukuyaku as a catalyst for social relations within the human community and as a space of interspecies coexistence with the other organisms that accompany life and activities in the village of Ripanu.
It comprises the following works: Escorpio reflejo a Ripanu, Achiote, Entrega, and Micropaisajes de Nakusaka.
Escorpio reflejo a Ripanu
Clay Mukawa, fungus, plant matter (2023)
Scorpio Reflejo a Ripanu is part of the mukawas produced during the project. It is the only piece that has left the community reserve.
Achiote
Video (2023)
Achiote shows the access route to the clay gathering site. As children, our passage through the forest is made possible only by Gloria, Julia, and Fabián, who agree to accompany us. Without their presence, nothing would remain but a fragmented and disoriented wandering in an environment that could devour us.
Entrega
Photography and video (2023)
Documentation of the process of placing the mukawas in the different locations around Ripanu.
Nakusaka's Microlandscape
Video (2023)
Video documentation made using a microscope lens, showing the outcome of the coexistence of the life forms that inhabited the mukawas during the two days they remained buried in the forest.