Flowing Like Waterfalls & Alka domo by Seba Calfuqueo, 2023, PICA

Alka domo is a video installation and performative work that recontextualizes a story about Caupolicán, the legendary toki of the Mapuche, Chile’s largest Indigenous community. A toki symbolizes strength and perseverance in the face of adversity. Caupolicán led the Mapuche army in an uprising against the Spanish conquistadors lasting from 1553 to 1558. Caupolicán was elected military leader by the Mapuche people of Chile after holding a log on his shoulders for two days and one night. Today, his name is a symbol of Native American resistance. In Alka domo, Seba Calfuqueo holds a hollowed-out tree trunk above their head at places of personal history and significance to the artist as well as at various public sites, representing the complex interaction between Mapuche and Chilean culture. In addition to major video installation, Alka domo, Seba Calfuqueo will present Flowing Like Waterfalls. Flowing Like Waterfalls is a 20-minute performance that approaches the power of water's fluidity as a means to explore the body, gender, sexuality, and the relationship of water with life, forests, and ecosystems.