Moquém_Surarî: Contemporary Indigenous Art

The elders of the Makuxi people say that, in ancient times, Surarî’ was abandoned in the forest by a hunter. Missing him, Surarî’ became a human and decided to go up to the skies after his master. For this, he asked a small hawk to help him,  and the bird took him on its back. When he got there, Surarî’ transformed  himself once more, acquiring the body of a star. Thereafter he became responsible for bringing the rain and to remember that, after the time of drought, there would still be another possible time, that of water.

In the Makuxi language Surarî’ is the word for moquém, a wooden frame used to dehydrate and smoke meat. The technique of moquear, a way to preserve food and facilitate its transport from where it was hunted and fished to the villages, is well suited for thinking about the transit of supplies and knowledge that cross not only different spaces, but also different worlds – transits that constitute the movements of contemporary Indigenous art. 

The rain caused by Surarî’ is a way of conceiving the doings of Indigenous artists as a vehicle between distinct temporalities and a way of producing and actualizing relations.

Moquém_Surarî: Contemporary Indigenous Art presents works by 34 Indigenous artists that embody transformations, visual translations of their cosmologies and narratives, making present the temporal depth on which their practices are based. The works attest that the time of contemporary Indigenous art is not hostage to the past. Ancestry is mobilized in the present, reconfiguring enunciative positions and power relations to produce other forms of encounter between worlds not based on colonial extractivisms. 

  Txaism is a concept formulated from the word txai in Hãtxa Kuin, the language of the Huni Kuin people, which can be translated as “brother-in-law”. Here, brother-in-law or txai evokes a specific type of alliance with a non-consanguine person with whom one establishes a relationship of reciprocity and commitment, whether through kinship or affinity. Txaism is thus the possibility of being an ally of the one who is different from us. In the context of the violent encounter between worlds inaugurated by the colonial invasion, txaism is an urgent invitation to create new forms of relationship, expanded into other dimensions of time and space.

The txaist proposition reverberates with Ailton Krenak's formulations on the “affective alliances”, in which there is a radical expansion of the idea of ​​alliance beyond humans, opening up the possibility of maintaining relationships of affection with other beings that make up the cosmos. In this way, Ailton makes us remember the fundamental bond of belonging that the Indigenous peoples maintain with the land and the importance of celebrating these alliances with joy and beauty: the traditions of partying in the forest, of celebrating with it and everyone who lives in it.

Makunaima's Transformation/ Resurgence subseries 
Transmakunaimî series

Untitled, 2017
Colored pencils and felt-tip pen on paper
Collection Jaider Esbell de Arte Indígena Contemporânea Gallery

Untitled, 2017
Colored pencils and felt-tip pen on paper
Collection Jaider Esbell de Arte Indígena Contemporânea Gallery

NAI MÃNPU YUBEKÃ, 2017
Acrylic on canvas
Artist’s collection

Photo: Everton Ballardin