At the Gates of Paradise En las puertas del paraíso - Inter

At the Gates of Paradise
Art of the Guaraní of Paraguay
En las puertas del paraíso
El arte de los guaraníes del Paraguay
September 8, 2005 to January 20, 2006
Del 8 de septiembre de 2005 al 20 de enero de 2006
The Inter-American Development Bank
Enrique V. Iglesias
President
Dennis E. Flannery
Executive Vice President
João Sayad
Vice President for Finance and Administration
Jorge Crespo Velasco
Executive Director for Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay
Orlando Ferreira Caballero
Alternate Execuive Director for Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay
Mirna Liévano de Marques
External Relations Advisor
The Cultural Center
Félix Angel
General Coordinator and Curator
Soledad Guerra
Assistant General Coordinator
Anne Vena
Concerts and Lectures Coordinator
Elba Agusti
Cultural Development Program Coordinator
Florencia Sader
IDB Art Collection Management and Conservation Assistant
Exhibition Committee
Félix Angel
Curator
Oscar Centurión Frontanilla
Associate Curator for the exhibition
_________________________
Catalogue Designer
Cecilia Peñaloza-Jacobson
Photography
Juan Carlos Meza, Paraguay
On the cover, clockwise from top left:
Reflejos de la esencia Aché (Reflections of the Aché
People), photograph by Bjarne Fostervold; Reflejos
de la esencia Aché (Reflections of the Aché People),
photograph by Bjarne Fostervold; and Aché Family
(Familia Aché), cedar wood.
On this page:
Untitled, photograph by Juan Aníbal Britos Basualdo
Mirna Liévano de Marques
External Relations Advisor
Inter-American Development Bank, Washington, D.C.
It is a great honor for the Cultural Center of the
contribute to designing the solutions most suitable
Office of External Relations of the Inter-American
for securing a desirable future.
Development Bank to present the exhibition “At the
Gates of Paradise: Art of the Guaraní of Paraguay,”
It is culture that can most subtly provide us the
as a homage by the Bank to the indigenous commu-
dimension of responsibility in this effort, especially
nities of this South American country.
when, due to the diversity of our situations, we
different human groups speak different languages.
The theme and focus of this exhibition also offer an
Experts are in agreement that the Guaraní devel-
appropriate occasion for the Cultural Center to pay
oped a culture based on the spoken word rather
tribute and express its deep gratitude to the Presi-
than on visual representation, and so some who are
dent of the IDB, Enrique V. Iglesias, who 13 years
accustomed to a certain visual artistic tradition may
ago conceived the idea of creating the Center amid
be at a loss to interpret Guaraní thought and feeling.
widespread skepticism.
The IDB does not look on difficulties of this kind
In this Introduction I am not going to recite the
as problems but as opportunities. It thus seeks to
many achievements of the Cultural Center, because
understand not only the needs, but also the aspira-
these speak for themselves from the pages of this
tions of communities and their differences. The
catalog, thereby confirming just how right President
challenge must be not to eliminate such differences
Iglesias was when he decided that culture ought to
but to resolve them, as the Brazilian artist Gilberto
be included in the process of development.
Gil noted some time ago here at the Bank. Thus it
will be easier to make progress because such a focus
Exploring Guaraní culture (or the portion of it that
reflects the concern for responding in a manner that
still reaches us) is a necessary and salutary exercise
is appropriate and suited to all.
because it helps us understand the cultural differences that affect the perception of reality that de-
It is not just some of us but all of us who must learn
termines–both in the Guaraní and in ourselves–not
to live in harmony with others, with nature, and
only our vision of the past, but also our image and
with the customs of others in order to make material
expectations of the future.
progress and prevent our differences from interfering with the common good. That is how we will
That perception, like so many others in the
reach this “land without evil” that the Guaraní have
Americas, is important for the IDB inasmuch as its
always sought to protect, which all of us very much
mission is to contribute to the economic and social
need to discover and for which President Iglesias has
development of the communities of the region. The
labored in imagining and in building.
vision of the future is not one-dimensional, but the
result of the confluence of many perceptions that
1
Mirna Liévano de Marques
Asesora de Relaciones Externas
Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo, Washington, D.C.
Para el Centro Cultural de la Oficina de Relaciones
tribuyen a diseñar las soluciones más indicadas para
Externas del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo
alcanzar un futuro favorable.
constituye un gran honor presentar la exposición
“En las puertas del paraíso: el arte de los guaraníes
La cultura es lo que con más sutileza puede darnos
del Paraguay”, como un homenaje del Banco a las
la dimensión de responsabilidad en este esfuerzo,
comunidades indígenas de este país sudamericano.
sobre todo cuando por la misma diversidad de realidades los distintos grupos humanos hablamos len-
El tema y el enfoque de la exposición resultan
guajes diferentes. Los expertos coinciden en afirmar
además apropiados para que el Centro Cultural le
que los guaraníes desarrollaron una cultura basada
brinde un tributo de reconocimiento y su profundo
en la palabra y no en la representación; por eso al-
agradecimiento al Presidente del BID, Enrique V.
gunos de nosotros, acostumbrados a cierta tradición
Iglesias, quien hace 13 años concibió la creación del
artística visual, no contamos con las referencias para
Centro en medio de un escepticismo generalizado.
interpretar el pensamiento y el sentir guaraníes.
No voy a repetir en esta introducción los logros
El BID no asume este tipo de dificultades como
alcanzados por el Centro Cultural, puesto que ellos
problemas sino como oportunidades. De esta
hablan por sí mismos desde las páginas de este
manera, procura entender no sólo las necesidades
catálogo y así permiten comprobar cuán acertado
sino las aspiraciones de las comunidades y también
estaba el Presidente cuando decidió que había que
sus diferencias, a las que se esfuerza por resolver en
vincular la cultura a los procesos de desarrollo.
vez de eliminar, como señalara acertadamente hace
un tiempo en este mismo Banco el artista brasileño
Explorar la cultura guaraní, o al menos lo que
Gilberto Gil. Así, será más factible progresar porque
todavía nos llega de ella, es un ejercicio saludable y
tal enfoque refleja la preocupación de responder en
necesario, por cuanto nos ayuda a entender las dife-
forma apropiada y conveniente para todos.
rencias culturales que inciden en la percepción de
la realidad que determina —tanto en los guaraníes
Somos todos y no sólo algunos los que debemos
como en nosotros– la visión del pasado, pero tam-
aprender a vivir en armonía con los demás, con la
bién la imagen y las expectativas del futuro.
naturaleza, con las costumbres de los otros, para
progresar materialmente e impedir que nuestras
Dicha percepción, como tantas otras que existen en
diferencias interfieran en el bien colectivo. Así
nuestra América, es importante para el BID por cu-
lograremos llegar a esa “tierra sin mal” que los
anto su misión es contribuir al desarrollo económico
guaraníes siempre han protegido, que todos ur-
y social de las comunidades de la Región. La visión
gentemente necesitamos descubrir, y por la cual el
del futuro no es, pues, unilateral, sino el resultado
Presidente Iglesias ha trabajado tanto en imaginar y
de la confluencia de muchas percepciones que con-
construir.
2
At the Gates of Paradise:
Art of the Guaraní of Paraguay
The Land
Th
L d without
it
ith
th t E
Evil
il iis still
till a lland.
d H
Hence itt iis nott a paradise
di th
thatt will
ill
be found later, in another life. When the Guaraní mythically project this
land, they do not see it as an Eden. They always see it as a land in this life.
It is a land that is not up above but within the horizontal dimension.
This is very important because we are beginning to dialogue with a
conception that is beyond other conceptions. Inasmuch as it is Earth, it
tends to be good. The Guaraní have an aesthetic view of Earth. For the
Guaraní, the Earth is a beautiful body on which trees are like long hair, the
skin is sometimes shining, sparkling, and manifestations of soil erosion
are diseases. This is within the conception that we call mythic, but for
them it is a very real conception.
Rev. Bartomeu Melià J.P.
Utopia Already Happened in Paraguay
Rev. Bartomeu Melià J.P.
The Garden of Divine Abundance and the Paradise of Mohammad, which the
Spanish reached around 1537, was named Paraguay. Less than a century after
the arrival of the conquerors, it had been turned into a solitary field and hill of
sorrow, whose saddest and bitterest fruit was the death of the native peoples (and
Spaniards as well). Epidemics, wars, and abuse, as recorded by a chronicler of
that time, had caused a demographic collapse after which only a fourth of the
indigenous people who used to live there remained.
In the early seventeenth century, Philip III was on the Spanish throne, and yet the
splendor of literature and the arts could not hold back the collapse of a country
that expected more from conquest, war, and plunder than from what the countryside produced and what was earned by industry. It is true that serious lucid and
concrete political and theological critiques were raised at this time of crisis. At
the forefront were the university professors of theology and philosophy Francisco
de Vitoria and Domingo de Soto, who were able to lay out the broad lines of the
rights of indigenous peoples, thereby building the foundation for the future international law of peoples. It was also a time of utopias. Part I of Cervantes’ Don
Quixote appeared in Madrid in 1605, and Part II of the adventures of the same
imaginative gentleman appeared in 1615.
Fish (Pez)
Wood and phyroengraving
4
Colonial Paraguay
Apyká Taguá (Three Chairs in
the Shape of a Tapir)
Wood and phyroengraving
Drum (Tambor de Vacapi)
Wood, cowhide and willow
Reflejos de la esencia Aché
(Reflections of the Aché People)
Photograph by Bjarne Fostervold
As a colony of Spain, Paraguay saw the
launching of a missionary experiment
that would soon achieve the fame of
being “a utopia with a place”—terms
that are logically contradictory.
This utopia was invented in a wellthought-out act of governance, in the
Instructions issued by Father Diego
de Torres Bollo, the first Provincial of
the Society of Jesus in Paraguay. The
Instructions were addressed to the
first Jesuits entering the jungles where
the Spaniards had barely penetrated to
do missionary work among the Guaraní. The 1609 Instructions, recorded
by the priest-historian Pedro Lozano
in his Historia de la Compañía de
Jesús en la Provincia del Paraguay (t.
II, Madrid 1755:136-41 and 248-52)
serve not only as tools for a politically
and socially well-planned action, but
also embody the spirituality of St.
Ignatius Loyola, for whom “non coerceri maximo, contineri tamen minimo,
divinum est” [to not be enclosed in
the maximum and to fit within the
minimum are divine]. To contemplate
the galaxy and inspect the atom is to
invent the divine utopia.
Diego de Torres trusted in this
imagination which becomes a cause.
Imaginatio facit causam was a saying
at the time. However, not all the
imaginary worlds that sprang from
the pens of writers took on their own
life. Not everything with a head has
feet. Furthermore, the utopias that
have swirled around the world of
pulpits and books rarely land on the
ground and nowhere do they find
their place. They move about in the
head—in the heads of those who
created them—but they do not really
have feet. Actually, neither feet nor
head.
No utopia begins as a utopia. It
is more likely to begin as a critique
of the wrongs and injustices of the
present and a means for getting out of
an intolerable and unsustainable situation of injustice and injury.
No como y doy de comer;
I don’t eat yet I feed others,
No visto y doy de vestir;
Lack clothes yet clothe others,
Soy libre y he de servir;
Am free but must also serve.
Esto ¿cómo puede ser?
How can this be?
This verse from that age collected
by Pedro Lozano (op. cit. II:289)
reflects the situation of oppression
affecting the indigenous people in the
colonized regions.
But the Jesuits were not to limit
themselves to complaints and cries
of protest. Rather they directed their
efforts toward the new. And what was
newest were the lands where there
were no Spaniards.
The Guaraní
as Subjects
It cannot be ignored that the Catholic
missions brought by the Spaniards
sought to bring about changes and
conversions and were also to some
extent a kind of colonialism of a
religious nature. These missions were
perhaps the most radical and purest
enterprises, which, by spreading
Christianity, sought to extend Spain’s
values throughout the world. The
missions exhibited what was purest and most attractive about Spain’s
Indian policy. Indeed at no time did
the Jesuit missions come into conflict
with Spanish legislation or with its
institutions. When they were accused
of promoting linguistic practices that
ignored Spanish, of not paying the
taxes owed, or even of being a state
within the state, the Jesuits showed
that it was precisely they, like few
others in the colony, who adhered to
the law and observed it fully. Such
excessive observance in the Spain of
that time was in itself a utopia.
Figure of Saint or Virgin
Carved and polychromed
wood
19th century
It was the utopia of standing up
(and being able to stand up) to the
practices of Spanish and native-born
settlers who repeatedly and in different ways violated that very colonial
order. Even today in most countries
it would be utopian for society and
government to fully observe the provisions of their national constitution.
The Instructions given by Father
Torres respected the law and took the
law as the model of political life; they
mistrusted the Spaniards, but trusted
the indigenous people.
Out of fidelity to the gospel they
preached, the Jesuits, especially at the
outset, gave a large vote of confidence
to the tradition of the indigenous who
were assumed to love themselves and
their people. Those who love their
land do not destroy it.
In late 1609 beyond the
Tyvykuary River, the first “reduction”
was started. It was named after Saint
Ignatius, and later known as Guasú
(the great) to distinguish it from San
Ignacio Miní, the smaller one in the
Guairá region. It was the beginning
of a new history, which was to be
Virgin of the Candlemas
(Virgen de la Candelaria)
Carved and polychromed wood
Second half of the 18th century-first
half of the 19th century
6
characterized by a new paradigm in
terms of the relationship between the
Guaraní and Jesuit missionaries, such
as had not existed previously and
would not exist in subsequent years.
The method of “mission by reduction” was practiced in some fashion
elsewhere in the Americas, including
in Paraguay, by other missionaries,
such as the Franciscans, but the Jesuit
model had unmistakable features.
This modestly and calmly begun
experiment had a deep impact on the
exploitative relations of the landgrant-holding Spaniards toward the
indigenous people in “this disguised
captivity,” and it stood up to the
enslaving designs of the plundering
“bandeirantes” from São Paulo, Brazil.
The tension between both sides, on
the right and the left, would continue
for years and years. From early colonial times the Spaniards had “de-nativized” many indigenous people, who
had to serve in the landholders’ fields
and workplaces; with the bandeirantes, the indigenous people were seized
away from their lands and enslaved in
the sugar mills of Rio de Janeiro.
The Lord of the Palms
Carved and polychromed
wood
19th century
With the Jesuits, the Guaraní
stayed on their lands and remained
in their own territory, which kept its
compact unity. Although Christianity
led them to adopt new and strange
forms of religious life that were
unquestionably colonial in nature, the
replacement was largely mitigated by
the persistence of a strong, scarcely
changed cultural core. The Guaraní
preserved their language, and within
the settlements the economy continued to be based on exchange of gifts
without the introduction of marketing. The labor system combined
community and individuality, and
the sociopolitical organization of the
leadership of the chief was retained.
Indeed, the Guaraní did not have to
learn much from the Jesuits, perhaps
merely to do better what they already
knew how to do. The towns lived
primarily from farming corn, manioc,
cotton, and over time, cultivated mate,
augmented by raising and selling
cattle and horses. Hunting and gathering did not completely disappear. In
the Jesuit missions the indigenous
people still felt like Guaraní.
Saint Rosa of Lima
Carved and polychromed wood
19th century
Figure of Saint or Virgin
Carved and polychromed
wood
19th century
7
Reflejos de la esencia Aché
(Reflections of the Aché People)
Photograph by Bjarne Fostervold
Spiritual Conquest
Coffer
Wood inlaid with
river mother-of-pearl
Trunk
Wood and inlaid wood
with naturalistic and
zoomorphic designs
18th century
When Antonio Ruiz de Montoya,
en route to Madrid, was writing La
conquista espiritual (Madrid, 1639,
Cap. XLV; published by Ernesto J. A.
Maeder. Rosario, 1989, pp. 195 ff.), a
chronicle and argument on behalf of
the missionary practice of the “reductions,” he was already able to present
a sketch of a pragmatic utopia with
feet on the ground in Paraguay. What
constituted the utopia presented by
Montoya in the court of Madrid to
royal advisors, ladies of the aristocracy, church people, and anyone else
who could read?
The idea of utopia may come
from an ideological mirage, for that
same missionary thought that what
was remarkable was not only the high
degree of civilization and humanity
attained, but also the fact that this had
been attained with a people like the
Guaraní. Until recently they had been
practicing cannibalism, going about
naked, and were nomads full of vices.
The utopia in this instance is that a
people could have leaped such a great
distance in so short a time.
“It is the power of the Gospel
that I seek to explain,” says Montoya.
“Its efficacy can be seen in making
lions meek, domesticating tigers, and
8
turning wild beasts into human beings
and even angels.”
“They are all farmers and each
has his separate plot, and when they
reach the age of eleven, the boys have
their own plot, and they aid one another very agreeably; they do not buy
or sell, because with generosity and no
self-interest, they aid one another in
their needs ... they live in peace with
no disputes.”
It should be kept in mind that
farming and the economic system that
anthropologists now call reciprocity
were in fact the legacy of the Guaraní:
everything is given away, nothing is
sold. Generosity is the source of prestige for the one who gives and does
not need to receive.
Absence of Spaniards
The great progress in arts and other
occupations and the flowering of
music likewise seemed utopian.
“They are very skilled in things
mechanical; there are very good carpenters, smiths, tailors, weavers, and
shoemakers, and while they had none
of this before, through the diligence of
the priests they have become masters,
and remarkably so in the easy cultivation of the land with a plow; they are
wonderfully devoted to music which
the priests teach the sons of chiefs,
and to read and write; they celebrate
masses with an array of music, with
two or three choruses; they put serious effort into playing instruments,
bassoons, cornets, oboes, harps, zithers, guitars, lutes, clarinets and other
instruments.”
Thus was born this “musical
republic,” idyllically represented by
missionaries who enchanted the native people as they passed through
rivers and forests. Montoya was
to say: “They make up a very good
political republic. What more can be
asked?” But it was especially utopian
that within the realms of the king of
Spain, paradoxically, the laws of the
Spanish Crown should be observed,
although for that to happen the Jesuit
experiment had to be able to develop
without Spaniards.
“Spaniards have not entered that
land because it has been conquered
by the Gospel alone, and because our
desire has been that Your Majesty
protect these indigenous people... I
confess that my aim is that the indigenous people not perform personal
service...; my desire is that they pay
Your Majesty such tribute as their
poverty allows them.” For Montoya
the missions also meant freeing the
indigenous people from that “diabolical personal service” into which the
landholders wanted to place them.
Utopia consisted of attaining it.
The Location of Utopia
The utopian vision was common
among the Jesuits, who maintained
it over and over in their different
writings, whether in letters, chronicles
of the time, or histories. In 1793
Father José Manuel Peramás, one of
the Jesuits expelled from the missions
in Paraguay in 1767, compared the
Guaraní to Plato’s Republic, as may
be read in the recent work, Platón y
los guaraníes (Asunción, Paraguay:
CEPAG, 2004). But the experiment
went well beyond the circle of friends
and admirers of the Jesuits. In 1752
Ludovico Muratori, not a Jesuit, wrote
Il cristianesimo felice and Voltaire asserted that such missions represented
“le triomphe de l’humanité”.
Above: Paí Tavytera Altar
Wood, gourds, sticks and rope
20th century
Below: Reflejos de la esencia Aché
(Reflections of the Aché People)
Photograph by Bjarne Fostervold
The Guaraní World –
“The Past in the Present”
Margarita Miró Ibars
While Guaraní culture did not leave material monuments,
its great contribution to humanity lies in its worldview,
wisdom and treatment of the environment, at the transcendence of human beings and their unity with the spiritual and
the natural. It was a perfect trinity for achieving psychosocial,
spiritual and natural equilibrium, a vision that is now
becoming more operational and fostering the conservation
of planet Earth.
What support does Guaraní culture offer us today, with its
wooden crosses as we move into the Third Millennium? The
wooden crosses, the (pre-Hispanic) flowering cross of Ñanderuvusú (Eternal God), bearer of mbaekua´a (wisdom), symbolizes the union of the human being with the divine, a reminder
that they are on the same horizontal plane as other human
beings and the other elements of nature.
10
Apyka Jejuhu
(Encounter of Seats)
by Lucy Yegros (M. M. Luciana Yegros)
Mixed media on wood
1987
Reflejos de la esencia Aché
(Reflections of the Aché People)
Photograph by Bjarne Fostervold
Thanks to the circulation of information and to popular wisdom, we
are able to learn about, evaluate, and
appreciate the ideas that reigned in
past decades. We can rightly say that
Guaraní culture always had universal
principles that contributed to the balance of human nature and the world.
The Guaraní recognized the
value of “being” (tekoete), of human
beings in their plenitude, masters of
themselves, true “being” with powers
over themselves, over nature, over
the transcendental, with personal
and community self-esteem: “I have
worth,” “I am,” “I can.” If I feel incapable, impotent, imperfect, how can I
build or generate a just, equitable, or
harmonious society?
There are millennia-old words
that today have become emblems for
building a more just and equitable
society: tekó jojá (equity, which is not
the same thing as equality, for many
things may not be equal, because creation, the origin of the genesis, made
them different); ñemongueta (dialogue); and jekupyty (consensus). Getting a simple majority by vote is not
the same as assuming a responsibility
or moving in a direction through consensus reached by deliberation.
Volunteer work, so heralded and
exalted by society, which obliges us
to turn it into an ongoing mechanism
for solving the conflicts created by
extreme individualism, was already
well established in the ojopói.
Winged Face Mask
(Agüero-Güero Chova Pepo)
Chiriguano ethnic group
(Tupi Guaraní)
1990
Winged Face Mask
(Agüero-Güero Chova Pepo)
Chiriguano ethnic group
(Tupi Guaraní)
1989
In nature woman and man
were not superior or inferior to one
another; they were simply different
and complemented one another, each
in his or her role. Woman had her
space, her intimacy, her governance,
and her knowledge. Woman was, and
still is in surviving Guaraní communities, the “oga jara” or mistress of the
home, of everything having to do with
managing family goods; she is not
servija or servant, subject to the man,
a sexual slave, incapable of managing property (ideas introduced by the
conqueror).
Catholicism quickly interpreted
the search for the Land without Evil
(yvy maraey) as the search for paradise after death. But today, with the
contributions of science and sustainable development, it can be said that
the Guaraní lived in an earthly paradise, on an earth flowing all year long
with honey, water, fruits, and food.
The forested area of the habitat of the
Guaraní community, from the Caribbean, passing by way of the Amazon
and the territories of the Paraná and
Paraguay Rivers, has an extremely
bountiful nature that human beings
pollute, impoverish and destroy, by
taking everything from it and giving
nothing back.
12
When human beings occupy a
territory, they pollute it, waste it, and
debilitate the earth; natural resources
are exhausted, undermining the balance of body and spirit. When they
observed this natural wear and tear,
the Guaraní made periodic cyclical
migrations to give nature time to
recover. That enabled them to reverse
the destructive behavior of human
beings so that subsequent generations
could continue to enjoy the same
earthly paradise.
The Guaraní did not have
temples of stone; their temple was nature. For the Guaraní community, the
earth was sacred and is sacred; it is the
mother of all. Hence to this day their
descendants in their opy, or house of
devotion, keep the earthen floor or
foundation and they pray barefoot.
Guaraní knowledge of human
nature and of the use of plants (ethnomedicine and ethnobotany) have
been confirmed by the sophisticated
science of our own day.
We should also mention the
treasures of the Guaraní language;
onomatopoetic, syncretic, sonorous,
synthetic and profound, foreigners appreciate it, but it also remains strongly
intertwined with the everyday life of
contemporary Paraguayans.
Styles of Guaraní
Indigenous Art
Ticio Escobar
(adapted and summarized by Félix Angel)
An initial criterion that can be adopted for
differentiating the various indigenous peoples
living in Paraguay is based on their patterns of
subsistence. The different ethnic groups may thus
be classified into two cultural systems depending
on whether they are hunter-gatherers or farmers.
Included in the first group are communities
belonging to the Zamuco, Mataco, Guaykurú
and Maskoy linguistic families located in the Gran
Chaco (Western part of Paraguay), while the
second group comprises those living in the Eastern
part of the country. This classification, made for
illustrative purposes, is a rough approximation
whose sole aim is to locate quickly the ethnic
groups in order to understand better the art
that they produce.
13
Colibri´s Head
(Agüero-Ndechi Maino)
Chiriguano ethnic group
(Tupi Guaraní)
1990
F
Flute
(Mimby)
Chiriguano ethnic group
C
((Tupi Guaraní)
11989
Tucan’s Head (Agüero-Ndechi Tukä)
Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní)
1992
The system of hunting and
gathering and the nomadic ethos
connected to it provide the basis
for a flexible cultural framework for
incorporating things and making various adaptations. Guaraní farming
culture, being dependent on the cycles
of nature, is more conservative and
closed to innovations. These factors
played an important role at the time
of colonial transculturation and leave
a strong imprint on the symbolic production of different
indigenous societies, thereby
making it possible to identify
among them common features and differences.
Both hunting and
farming societies are
structured around a
ritual mythic core that
combines the functions of
power, legal order, leisure, beauty,
and religion. Hence the basic
forms of visual manifestations
are involved with ritual and
tribal self-identification. Those
forms start with the human
body, the favored foundation
of indigenous expression:
Accessory Ao Ñe´é
(The Lenguage of Clothes)
by Marité Zaldívar (María Teresa
Carolina Zaldívar Rolón)
2002
ornamentation with feathers, tattooing and body paint among the people
of the Chaco and feather art are
basic archetypes among the Guaraní.
Indeed, ritual celebration is in itself a
total work of art that integrates communal creation.
Another great focus of aesthetic
creation has its origins in economic
production. The works linked to
subsistence require forms rooted in
the collective, such as Guaraní basketwork and the caraguatá weavings of
the Chaco people.
In their interconnection with
ritual and economic production, such
forms are repositories of profound
story lines found within each ethnic
group. That is why they tend to be
stable throughout history. Even hunting cultures maintain a certain symbolic reserve that serves as a compass
during processes of change. Although
new signs are incorporated and
techniques are renewed, the ancient
pattern of the ritual is preserved.
Although the peripheral forms
draw stylistic nourishment from
sources stronger than themselves,
they have fewer expressive responsibilities and they may surrender to the
attractiveness or imposition of new
techniques. The adaptation of glass
beads and wool weaving motifs of the
Chaco people, the ceramic ornamentation of the Chiriguano and Caduces,
the zoomorphic carving of Chiripá
or Manjui, and the basketwork of
14
the Chamacoco, for example, involve
hybridizing processes that resulted
in opening up new possibilities for
expression.
With the foregoing in mind,
basically three groups of Guaraní
aesthetics may be distinguished.
Classic Guaraní
Ascetic and strict, driven obsessively
by the inner life and the search for
the fullness of human experience, the
Guaraní developed a sober and austere aesthetic. Their ornamental signs
take the form of concise solutions,
their designs seek synthesis, their
decorations are essential and their
choreography is precise. This laconic
quality affects both basic and peripheral forms. Although documentation
is rather scant, it could be assumed
that ancient Guaraní feather art was
exuberant and was gradually purged
starting in the colonial era. The sumptuous feather capes, crowns and napeguards became simplified, and their
bare appearance today expresses the
retreat of a culture under attack and
ecological plunder. Extravagant body
painting has been cut back to minimal
facial markings. Today, for example,
the Mbyá highlight the enigma of
their identity with small dark angles
and curves that concentrate on their
face the almost-lost scripture of their
ethnicity.
The Chaco Guaraní
The Chiriguanos, commonly known
as Guarayos but who call themselves
Avá or Mbyá, are descendants of
Tupí Guaraní groups, which, in the
era just before the Spanish conquest,
emigrated to the Western region
because of war, religious ideals, political reasons, and economic pressures.
The Chiriguanos made an enormous
effort to re-adapt to the sub-Andean
environment and reformulate their
Guaraní affirmation. Hence Chiriguano art must be regarded as an atypical
case among the Guaraní. Its forms are
based on hybrids and reduplication.
Guaraní Related
Regarded as belonging to the Guaraní
language family, the Aché develop
their own aesthetic which expresses
their many sociocultural differences
as a hunter-gatherer group. Their
aesthetic sensitivity is obscure and
aggressive, and has nothing to do with
the delicate harmony and subtlety
of the Guaraní. Their colors are dry
and somber. They are the only ethnic
group that does not use primary
colors but tends toward blacks, grays,
and gray-browns. Their symbols are
sharp and driven by a barbaric expressiveness, propelled by gloomy poetics
manifested in a contempt for delicacy
and a preference for the rough and
the harsh. The realm of the Aché is a
rugged world that contrasts sharply
with the serene sweetness of their
songs and the warmth and smiles of
its inhabitants.
____________________________________
Source: “La Belleza de los Otros - Arte Indígena del Paraguay”. 1993. Centro de Documentación e Investigaciones de Arte Popular
e Indígena del Centro de Artes Visuales, RP
Ediciones. Asunción, Paraguay.
Reflejos de la esencia Aché
(Reflections of the Aché People)
Photograph by Bjarne Fostervold
Curricula Vitae
Bartomeu
Melià i Lliteres
Jesuit priest, born in Porreres
(Baleares), Spain, December 7, 1932.
Came to Paraguay in 1954, where
he has studied Guaraní culture in
terms of anthropology, linguistics,
and philosophy. He is a member of
the Société des Américanistes de
París (1968), the National Commission on Bilingualism of the Ministry
of Education and Culture of the
Republic of Paraguay (1994), and the
Paraguayan Academy of the Spanish
Language; correspondent of the
Real Academia Española, the Paraguayan Academy of History (2004)
and the Royal Academy of History
of Madrid; and the Director of the
Department of Language and Culture of the “Antonio Guasch” Center
for Paraguayan Studies. His works
include Historia de la lengua guaraní
(Ed. Mafre, Barcelona, España),
El guaraní conquistado y reducido:
ensayos de etnohistoria (Asunción
Paraguay: Biblioteca Paraguaya de
Antropología del Centro de Estudios
Antropológicos de la Universidad Católica de Asunción, 1986),
Guaraníes y jesuitas en tiempo de las
misiones: una bibliografía didáctica
(Asunción, Paraguay: CEPAG, 1995).
He is regarded as one of the great
scholars of Guaraní culture, alongside León Cadogan, Egon Schaden
and Kurt Nimuendajú Unkel.
Margarita Miró Ibars
Ticio Escobar
Born in Asunción, Paraguay, in
1952. Graduated from the Department of Philosophy of the Universidad Nacional de Asunción with
a degree in history. Since 1983 she
has been living in Carapeguá, where
she began doing research on matters
related to national identity and
traditional culture. She has been
General Director of Research and
Cultural Support of the Office of the
Vice-Minister of Culture, and has
taken part in interinstitutional projects, including the Guaraní World
Sustainable Development Program,
begun in 2004 and coordinated by
the Ministry of Foreign Relations
of the Republic of Paraguay with
financial support from the IDB ; and
the Voice for the Voiceless, begun
in 2005 under UNESCO sponsorship to safeguard musical genres
and dances of endangered minorities. Her works include Karu Reko:
antropología culinaria paraguaya
(Asunción, Paraguay: Servilibro,
2004); Formación natural y social del
entorno de los humedales del Ypoá
y Carapeguá (Asunción, Paraguay:
Servilibro, 2002); Mujeres que tejen
arte: origen y sentido de la artesanía
carapegüeña (Carapeguá, Paraguay,
2002); Alimentación y religiosidad
paraguaya: chipa pan sagrado (Asunción, Paraguay: Servililbro, 2001);
and Tembí¨u Rehegua:- reivindicación de la cultura culinaria guaraní
y paraguaya (Carapeguá, Paraguay:
Editorial Salesiana, 1995).
Born in Asunción, Paraguay, in
1947. He is a lawyer and doctor in
philosophy, art critic, and cultural
administrator, as well as founder and
director of the Museum of Indigenous Art of Paraguay (1993-2005)
and former Director of Culture of
the Office of the Mayor of the City
of Asuncion. He works with Teixeira
(BR) in assessments and proposals
for fostering cultural development
in Latin America. He is a founding
member of the Commission on
Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples
and is affiliated with a variety of
institutions dealing with national
and Latin American culture. He
has directed in Paraguay, similar to
Mato in Caracas (VE), the Identities in Transit Project, sponsored
by the Rockefeller Foundation. He
has received a number of awards,
including the distinction of Latin
American Critic of the Year, given
in 1985 by the Argentine Section of
the International Association of Art
Critics (AICA); the Prince Klaus
Prize of Holland for his research,
theoretical corpus, and essays on
indigenous art; and the Urban Hero
Prize of the Prince Klaus Foundation. His works include La belleza de
los otros: arte indígena del Paraguay
(Asunción Paraguay: RP Ediciones,
1993), and La maldición de Nemur:
acerca del arte, el mito y el ritual de
los indígenas ishir del Gran Chaco
paraguayo (Asunción, Paraguay:
Centro de Artes Visuales–Museo
del Barro, 1999).
President Enrique V. Iglesias and the Cultural Center
of the Inter-American Development Bank
Félix Ángel, General Coordinator and Curator
IDB Cultural Center, Washington, D.C.
I
n 1992, on the occasion of the
Quincentennial Commemoration of
the Encounter of Two Worlds, IDB
President Enrique V. Iglesias created the
Cultural Center as a concrete expression of the Bank’s commitment to the
economic and social development of
Latin America and the Caribbean. From
the outset the Center’s mission was to
advance the concept both within the Bank
and elsewhere that culture is a component of development. Accordingly, it was
necessary to incorporate that concept into
the institutional mindset, which would
eventually lead to expanding the Bank’s
portfolio to include culture, traditionally
regarded as a subsidiary social area not
suited for receiving funding, despite its
importance in the history of the region
and the prestige it has acquired over
other sectors in the region more favored
with international assistance. The Center
was also intended to promote a broader
image of Latin America, particularly in the
city of Washington, D.C.
Acknowledgment of the accomplishments
of professionals working the field of the
culture and the potential of culture as
a source of progress and social cohesion seemed to President Iglesias to be
matters that could not be ignored or left
undeveloped. Culture has always been
able to rise above the economic, political and social problems of the region.
Through its culture the region has been
endowed with valuable resources, ranging
from spectacular archaeological sites to
internationally renowned literary works.
The Cultural Center was assigned to the
IDB’s Office of the Advisor of External
Relations. From the outset, President
Iglesias made it clear that the aim of
this initiative was not to use culture like
“a flower in the lapel,” as he himself
put it. The Center has been shaped by
three major programs: The Cultural
Development Program (CDP), the
Exhibitions, and the Concerts and
Lectures Series. The CDP co-finances
as much as two-thirds of small grants
for cultural projects with
significant social and economic
impact on communities in Latin
America and the Caribbean.
Thus far the CDP has co-financed over 300 projects in all
the Bank’s borrower countries,
with an investment of nearly
$1.7 million, which has helped
mobilize more than $3.5
million from other sources, directly benefiting nearly 60,000
individuals and indirectly more
than 200,000.
IDB Photo Unit
The other two programs—the Exhibitions
and the Concerts and Lectures Series—
were set up at the Bank’s headquarters in
order to establish a venue from which to
project to the United States and the world
the most outstanding cultural manifestations of the IDB member countries,
with emphasis on Latin America and the
Caribbean.
The Exhibitions include a variety of
subjects such as visual arts, folk art, crafts,
folklore, ethnography, anthropology, and
history, all revolving around themes that
examine the sociocultural realm as the
context of other political, economic, and
social aspects. This approach has enabled
the Cultural Center to establish its own
niche in Washington, D.C., and to secure
in the region its own identity closely
linked to the IDB. The Center has thus
far organized and presented 54 exhibitions—four per year—with the participation of the most prestigious public and
private institutions of Latin America and
the Caribbean.
The Concerts Series gives priority to young
people from the region who otherwise
would be unlikely to have the chance to
display their talents internationally. The
Center serves as a venue for well-known
artists in the world of music and lyric
theater. The Lectures Series offers the
opportunity to learn about the thinking of
intellectuals, writers, and leading figures
from political, social, and economic life.
Enrique V. Iglesias, President of the IDB with
the Mayor of Lima, Luis Castañeda Lossio,
at the IDB Cultural Center Art Gallery.
It serves as an open forum for discussing
the latest ideas in the public square as
countries continually undergo change.
The Cultural Center also administers
the IDB Art Collection, a selection of
over 1,700 art works representing all the
Bank’s member countries. It frequently
responds to requests to lend its works
for exhibition in museums and accredited
university galleries in the United States
and the region. It also has a small Fund
for Local Contributions, with emphasis on those who serve communities with
ties to the region, for strengthening its
presence in Washington and for demonstrating unequivocally its institutional
responsibility.
This important initiative of President
Iglesias, the Cultural Center, has clearly
helped position the IDB as unquestionably
the region’s leading development institution, understood in both its material and
spiritual dimensions. In the words of Ambassador Paolo Faiola, the current General
Secretary of the Instituto Italo-Latinoamericano in Rome, the Cultural Center
is now recognized both in the region and
elsewhere as one of the most significant
achievements of President Iglesias during
his 17 years of exemplary and fruitful
leadership at the helm of the IDB.
El Presidente Enrique V. Iglesias y el Centro Cultural
del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo
Félix Ángel, Coordinador General y Curador,
Centro Cultural del BID, Washington, D.C.
El reconocimiento de los logros alcanzados por quienes trabajan en el sector
cultural y su potencial como fuente de
progreso y cohesión social le parecían
al Presidente Iglesias asuntos que no
podían ignorarse, ni mucho menos desaprovecharse. Sobran pruebas de que la
cultura siempre ha logrado sobreponerse
a los problemas económicos, sociales y
políticos de la Región, logrando asimismo
beneficiarla con valiosos recursos que
van desde maravillosos sitios arqueológicos hasta obras literarias de prestigio
internacional.
El Centro Cultural fue encomendado a
la Asesoría de Relaciones Externas. De
entrada, el Presidente Iglesias dejó en
claro que no se trataba de una iniciativa
que pretendía utilizar la cultura “como
una flor en la solapa”, según sus propias
palabras. El Centro ha estado conformado
por tres grandes programas: el Programa de Desarrollo Cultural (PDC);
las Exposiciones, y los Conciertos y
Conferencias. El PDC cofinancia hasta
y presentado 54 exposiciones —cuatro
por año— con la participación de las
instituciones públicas y privadas más
prestigiosas de la Región.
dos tercios del costo de microproyectos culturales con un impacto social
importante en distintas comunidades
de América Latina y el Caribe. Hasta
la fecha, el PDC ha cofinanciado más
de 300 proyectos en todos los países
prestatarios del Banco con una inversión
cercana a US$ 1.700.000, los cuales
han contribuido a movilizar más de US$
3.500.000 provenientes de otras fuentes,
beneficiando directamente a cerca de
60.000 personas e indirectamente a más
de 200.000.
Los Conciertos y Conferencias, por su
parte, dan prioridad a jóvenes de la
Región que de otro modo difícilmente
tendrían oportunidad de demostrar sus
talentos en la escena internacional.
Asimismo, el Centro sirve de escenario
a artistas ampliamente reconocidos en
el mundo de la música y el teatro lírico.
Las conferencias dan la oportunidad de
escuchar el pensamiento de intelectuales,
hombres de letras y personajes de la vida
política, social y económica, sirviendo
como un foro abierto de discusión de las
ideas más interesantes que van ocupando
lugar dentro de la continua transformación de los países.
IDB Photo Unit
E
n 1992, en ocasión de la celebración del Quinto Centenario
del Encuentro de Dos Mundos, el
Presidente del BID Enrique V. Iglesias creó
el Centro Cultural como otra expresión
concreta del compromiso del Banco con el
desarrollo económico y social de América
Latina y el Caribe. Desde el comienzo, la
misión del Centro se orientó a introducir
dentro y fuera del Banco el concepto de
que la cultura forma parte del desarrollo.
Había la necesidad de incorporar dicho
concepto en la mentalidad institucional,
lo cual eventualmente llevaría a expandir la cartera del Banco para incluir la
cultura, considerada tradicionalmente un
subsector social inhabilitado para recibir
recursos, no obstante su importante papel
en la historia de la Región y el prestigio
que le ha dado por encima de otras áreas
más favorecidas con la ayuda internacional. El Centro estaba llamado, además,
a promover una imagen más amplia de
la Región, en particular en la ciudad de
Washington, D.C.
Enrique V. Iglesias, Presidente del BID.
Los otros dos programas —Exposiciones, y Conciertos, y Conferencias— se
pusieron en marcha para la Sede, con
el fin de establecer una ventana desde
donde proyectar hacia Estados Unidos y el
mundo las manifestaciones culturales más
sobresalientes de los países miembros
del BID, con énfasis en América Latina y
el Caribe.
Las Exposiciones incluyen una variedad de
temas como artes visuales, arte popular,
artesanía, folclor, etnografía, antropología e historia, girando alrededor de
temas que analizan lo sociocultural como
contexto de otros aspectos políticos,
económicos y sociales. Este enfoque le ha
permitido al Centro Cultural establecer
su propio nicho en Washington, D.C., y
afianzar en la Región una personalidad
propia ligada cercanamente con el BID.
Hasta la fecha el Centro ha organizado
El Centro Cultural también administra
la Colección de Arte del BID, una
selección que sobrepasa las 1.700 piezas
y representa a todos los países miembros
del Banco. Con frecuencia, responde a
solicitudes de préstamo de obras para
ser presentadas en museos y galerías
universitarias acreditadas de los Estados
Unidos y la Región. Dispone asimismo de
un pequeño Fondo para Contribuciones Locales, con énfasis en aquéllas que
sirven a comunidades con vínculos en la
Región, destinado a reforzar su presencia
en la ciudad y dar evidencia inequívoca
de su responsabilidad institucional.
Sin dudas, esta importante iniciativa del
Presidente Iglesias, el Centro Cultural,
ha contribuido a posicionar al BID como
institución líder indiscutible del desarrollo de la Región, entendiéndolo en sus
dimensiones material y espiritual. En palabras del Embajador Paolo Faiola, actual
Secretario General del Istituto Italo-Latinoamericano en Roma, el Centro Cultural
ya es reconocido, tanto en la Región como
fuera de ella, como uno de los logros
más significativos del Presidente Iglesias
durante su ejemplar y fructífero liderazgo
al frente del BID durante 17 años.
En las puertas del paraíso:
el arte de los guaraníes del Paraguay
Jaguar´s Head
(Agüero-Ndechi Jagua-Jagua)
Chiriguano ethnic group
(Tupi Guaraní)
1989
La tierra sin mal es una tierra. Por tanto, no es un paraíso que
se encontrará después, en otra vida. Cuando los guaraníes
proyectan míticamente esa tierra, no la ven como un edén.
La ven siempre como una tierra en esta vida. Es una tierra
que no está encima, sino en el seno de la horizontalidad. Esto
es muy importante porque comenzamos a dialogar con una
concepción que está fuera de otras concepciones. Al ser tierra,
ella tiende a ser buena. El guaraní tiene una visión estética de
la tierra. Para el guaraní la tierra es un cuerpo bello, en la cual
los árboles son como cabellera, la piel es, a veces, resplandeciente, brillante, y los fenómenos de erosión son las enfermedades. Esto está en la concepción que nosotros llamamos
mítica, que es una concepción muy real para ellos.
Rev. Bartomeu Melià S.J.
La utopía ya tuvo lugar en Paraguay
Rev. Bartomeu Melià S.J.
El Jardín de la Divina Abundancia y el Paraíso de Mahoma al que
llegaban los españoles hacia 1537, y que tomó por nombre Paraguay, se
había convertido, en menos de un siglo de presencia conquistadora, en
un campo de soledad y triste collado, donde las muertes de los naturales (pero también de los españoles) eran su fruto más triste y amargo.
Epidemias, guerras y malos tratos, al decir de un cronista de la época,
habían provocado un ocaso demográfico en el que no quedaba sino una
cuarta parte de los indios que antes había.
A principios del siglo XVII reinaba en España Felipe III, y el esplendor de las letras y las artes no podía detener tampoco el ocaso de un
país que esperaba más de la conquista, de la guerra y del saqueo, que
del producto del campo y la ganancia de la industria. Es cierto que en
ese tiempo de crisis no faltaban serias críticas, tanto políticas como
teológicas, lúcidas y concretas. En las cátedras de teología y filosofía
sobresalían Francisco de Vitoria y Domingo de Soto, quienes supieron
trazar las líneas maestras del derecho de los indígenas, abriendo caminos seguros para el futuro derecho internacional de los pueblos. Era
también una época de utopías. En 1605 aparecía en Madrid la primera
parte del Quijote de Cervantes y en 1615 la segunda parte de las aventuras del mismo ingenioso hidalgo.
Apyka (Seat)
by Lucy Yegros
(M. M. Luciana Yegros)
1990
22
En un Paraguay colonial
Tatarendy´y or Ava Kue Chiripa
Altar Ethnic group Ava Guaraní
(Tupi Guaraní)
1995
En ese Paraguay colonial de esa
España colonizadora, se inicia una
experiencia misionera que pronto
alcanzaría la reputación de ser una
“utopía que tiene lugar”, términos
lógicamente contradictorios. La
invención de esa utopía se gesta en
un acto de gobierno bien pensado,
en unas Instrucciones dadas por el
padre Diego de Torres Bollo, el primer
provincial de la Compañía de Jesús
del Paraguay, dirigidas a los primeros
jesuitas que entraban a las selvas
donde apenas habían penetrado los
españoles, para hacer misión entre los
indios guaraníes. Esas Instrucciones
de 1609, registradas por el sacerdote
23
historiador Pedro Lozano en su
Historia de la Compañía de Jesús en la
Provincia del Paraguay (t. II, Madrid
1755:136-141 y 248-252), no son sólo
instrumentos para una acción política
y socialmente bien planificada, sino
la concreción de una espiritualidad,
la de San Ignacio de Loyola, para
quien “non coerceri maximo, contineri
tamen minimo, divinum est” [no estar
encerrado en lo máximo y caber en lo
mínimo, eso es divino]. Contemplar la
galaxia y escrutar el átomo, es inventar
la divina utopía.
Diego de Torres confiaba en
esa imaginación que se convierte en
causa. Imaginatio facit causam, según
un aforismo de la época. Sin embargo
no todos los mundos imaginarios que
salían de la pluma de los escritores
conseguían vida propia. No todo lo
que tiene cabeza, tiene pies. Más aun,
las utopías que han circulado en el
mundo de los púlpitos y de los libros
raramente llegan a pisar tierra y no
tienen lugar en ningún lugar. Andan
de cabeza y en la cabeza que los creó,
pero en realidad no tienen pies. De
hecho, no tienen pies ni cabeza.
Ninguna utopía comienza como
utopía. Es más probable que se inicie
como crítica a los agravios e injusticias del momento y como medio para
salir de una situación de injusticia y
agravio intolerable e insostenible.
No como y doy de comer;
No visto y doy de vestir;
Soy libre y he de servir;
Esto, ¿cómo puede ser?
Immaculate Conception
(La Purísima Concepción)
Polychromed carved wood
Last quarter of the 18th centuryfirst quarter of the 19th century
Esta copla de la época que recoge
Pedro Lozano (op. cit. II:289) refleja la
situación de opresión en que estaban
los indios en las regiones colonizadas.
Pero los jesuitas no se quedarán
en el lamento y en el grito de protesta
sino que dirigen sus pasos hacia lo
nuevo. Y lo más nuevo eran las tierras
donde todavía no había presencia de
españoles.
Los guaraníes
como sujetos
No se puede desconocer que la misión
católica traída por los españoles pretende lograr cambios y conversiones y
es también, en su medida, una forma
de colonialismo de cariz religioso. La
misión es tal vez la empresa más radi-
24
cal y pura que pretende, promulgando
el cristianismo, extender los valores
de España por el mundo entero. En
la misión se dará lo más acendrado y
entrañable de la política indiana. De
hecho, en ningún momento las misiones jesuíticas entran en contradicción
con la legislación española ni con sus
instituciones. Cuando se les acusa
de promover prácticas lingüísticas
que dejan de lado el castellano, de no
pagar el debido tributo, de ser incluso
un estado dentro del estado, los jesuitas muestran que ellos precisamente,
como pocos otros en la colonia, se
atienen a la ley y la cumplen con exactitud. Un cumplimiento tan exagerado
en la España de entonces era de por sí
una utopía.
Es la utopía de estar y poder
estar contra la práctica de los colonos
españoles y criollos, que repetidamente y de diferentes formas desacatan
el mismo orden colonial. Aun hoy,
en la mayoría de los países sería una
verdadera utopía que sociedad y
gobierno se atuvieran a lo que dice
la constitución nacional que ellos
mismos se han dado.
Las Instrucciones del padre
Torres respetan la ley, la toman como
modelo de vida política, desconfían de
los españoles y se fían de los indios.
Por fidelidad al Evangelio que
predican, los jesuitas, sobre todo de la
primera época, dan un voto de confianza muy grande a la tradición de los
indígenas, quienes se supone que se
aman a sí mismos y a su gente. Quien
ama su tierra no la destruye.
En los últimos días de 1609 comenzaba, allende el río Tyvykuary, la
primera “reducción” con el nombre de
San Ignacio, conocido después como
Guasú el grande, para distinguirlo
de San Ignacio Miní, el pequeño en
el Guairá. Era el principio de una
nueva historia que se caracterizaría
por un nuevo paradigma en cuanto
Indigenous Couple
Wood and traditional ornaments of the
Guaraní people
a la relación entre indios guaraníes y
misioneros jesuitas como no se había
dado anteriormente y no se daría, al
menos con tanta nitidez, en los años
posteriores. El método de “misión por
reducción” era practicado de alguna
manera en otras partes de América,
incluso en el Paraguay, por otros
misioneros como los franciscanos,
pero el modelo jesuítico tiene rasgos
inconfundibles.
Esa experiencia modesta y
tranquilamente iniciada afectaba profundamente a las relaciones de explotación de los españoles encomenderos
hacia los indígenas en “ese disimulado
cautiverio” y se oponía a los propósitos esclavistas de los “bandeirantes”
de São Paulo, Brasil. La tensión con
ambos frentes, a derecha e izquierda,
se prolongaría por años y años. Desde
los primeros tiempos coloniales, los
españoles habían “desnaturalizado”
a muchos indios, pues éstos tenían
que ir a servir a las chacras y lugares
de trabajo del encomendero; con los
bandeirantes, a los indios se les arband
rebataban sus tierras y se los llevaba a
reba
en los ingenios de azúcar
la esclavitud
es
Río de Janeiro.
de R
Con los jesuitas los guaraníes
quedaron en sus tierras y en su
se qu
territorio, que mantuvo su unidad
terri
compacta y, aunque el cristianismo
com
llevó a adoptar formas de vida
los ll
religiosa nuevas y extrañas, sin duda
relig
carácter colonial, la sustitución
de ca
quedó en gran parte mitigada por la
qued
permanencia de fuertes núcleos culperm
turales poco cambiados. Los guaraníes
tural
conservaron su lengua, en el interior
cons
los pueblos la economía continuó
de lo
basándose en el intercambio de dones,
basá
sin lla introducción del mercadeo; en
de trabajo se conjugaron
la forma
fo
y la particularidad,
la comunidad
co
y lla organización sociopolítica del
cacicazgo se mantuvo. En realidad, los
guaraníes no tuvieron que aprender
25
mucho de los jesuitas, sólo a hacer tal
vez mejor lo que ya sabían hacer. Los
pueblos vivían principalmente de la
producción agrícola: maíz, mandioca,
algodón y, con el tiempo, hierba
mate cultivada, reforzada por la cría
y explotación de ganado vacuno y
caballar. La caza y la recolección no
desaparecieron del todo. En las misiones jesuíticas los indios todavía se
sentían guaraníes.
La conquista espiritual
Cuando Antonio Ruiz de Montoya,
en su viaje a Madrid, escribía La
conquista espiritual (Madrid, 1639,
Cap. XLV; edición de Ernesto J. A.
Maeder. Rosario, 1989. Pp. 195ss.),
crónica y alegato a favor de la
práctica misionera de las “reducciones”, podía presentar ya el esbozo
de una utopía pragmática que estaba
pisando tierra en el Paraguay. ¿En
qué consiste la utopía que Montoya
presenta en la corte de Madrid, a
consejeros del reino, a damas de la
aristocracia, a gente de iglesia y a
quien sepa leer?
La idea de utopía tal vez procede
de un espejismo ideológico, pues
el mismo misionero piensa que lo
admirable no es sólo el alto grado
de civilización y humanidad conseguidos, sino el hecho de que esto
se haya conseguido con un pueblo
como el guaraní, que hasta ayer era de
antropófagos y desnudos, nómades y
viciosos. La utopía en este caso sería
que un pueblo hubiese saltado tan
gran distancia cultural y humana en
tan poco tiempo.
“La fuerza del Evangelio pretendo explicar”, dice Montoya, “cuya
eficacia se ve en amansar leones,
domesticar tigres, y de montaraces
bestias hacer hombres y aun ángeles.”
Holy Trinity, Virgen Mary and the Angels
Carved and polychromed wood
Early 20th century
En realidad los guaraníes desarrollan toda su potencialidad en el
nuevo escenario. La colonia no parece
una colonia.
“Son todos labradores y tiene
cada uno su labranza aparte, y en
pasando de once años, tienen ya su
labranza los muchachos, que se ayudan unos a otros con mucha conformidad; no tienen compras ni ventas,
porque con liberalidad y sin interés se
socorren en sus necesidades… viven
en paz y sin litigios.”
Hay que tener en cuenta que
eran patrimonio de los guaraníes la
agricultura y el sistema económico,
que los antropólogos llaman hoy de
reciprocidad: todo se da, nada se
vende. La generosidad es fuente de
prestigio para el que da y no tiene
necesidad de recibir.
Sin los españoles
Parecían también utópicos el gran
progreso en las artes y oficios y el
florecimiento de la música.
“Son en las cosas mecánicas muy
hábiles; hay muy buenos carpinteros,
herreros, sastres, tejedores y zapateros, y si bien nada de esto tuvieron, la
industria de los padres los ha hecho
maestros, y no poco en el cultivo fácil
de la tierra con arado; son notable-
26
mente aficionados a la música que los
padres enseñan a hijos de los caciques,
y a leer y escribir; ofician las misas
con aparato de música, a dos y tres
coros; se esmeran en tocar instrumentos, bajones, cornetas, fagotes, arpas,
cítaras, vihuelas, rabeles, chirimías y
otros instrumentos.”
Nace así esa “república musical”, idílicamente representada por
los misioneros que encantaban a los
indígenas a su paso por ríos y selvas.
Montoya dirá: “Forman una república
política muy buena. ¿Qué más se
puede pedir?” Pero era sobre todo
utópico que en los dominios del rey
de España, por paradoja, se cumpli-
eran las leyes de la Corona española,
aunque para ello era necesario que la
experiencia jesuítica se pudiera desarrollar sin españoles.
“No han entrado españoles a
aquella tierra por haberla conquistado
sólo el Evangelio, y porque nuestro
deseo ha sido que estos indios los
ampare su Majestad… Que mi intento
sea que los indios no sirvan personalmente, confiésolo…; mi deseo es que
paguen a su Majestad el tributo que
su pobreza pudiere.” Para Montoya el
sentido de la misión era también la de
liberar a los indios de ese “diabólico
servicio personal” en el que querían
colocarlos los encomenderos. La
utopía consistió en conseguirlo.
Platón, como puede leerse en la reciente obra Platón y los guaraníes (Ed.
CEPAG, Asunción, Paraguay, 2004).
Pero la experiencia iba más allá del
círculo de amigos y devotos de los jesuitas. Ludovico Muratori, que no era
jesuita, escribía Il cristianesimo felice
(1752) o Voltaire afirmaba que tales
misiones representaban “le triomphe
de l’humanité”.
El lugar de la utopía
La visión utópica fue común entre los
jesuitas, que la mantendrían repetidamente en sus diferentes escritos,
fuesen cartas y crónicas del tiempo
o libros de historia. El padre José
Manuel Peramás, uno de los jesuitas
expulsados de las misiones del Paraguay en 1767, compara en 1793 los
pueblos guaraníes con la República de
Ao Ñe´é
(The Lenguage of Clothes)
by Marité Zaldívar (María Teresa
Carolina Zaldívar Rolón)
2002
Reflejos de la esencia Aché
(Reflections of the Aché people)
Photograph by Bjarne Fostervold
El mundo guaraní –
“El pasado en lo presente”
Margarita Miró Ibars
Si bien la cultura guaraní no dejó monumentos materiales, su
gran aporte a la humanidad radica en su visión del mundo, en
su sabiduría y manejo de lo ambiental, en la trascendencia del
ser humano y su unidad con lo espiritual y lo natural, trinidad
perfecta para lograr el equilibrio psicosocial, espiritual y natural, visión que hoy día va recuperando funcionalidad y favoreciendo al mantenimiento del planeta Tierra.
Owl Mask (Agüero-Ndechi Ñakurutu)
Ñakuru
Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní)
1990
Owl Mask (Agüero-Ndechi Ñakurutu)
Ñaku
Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní)
1990
28
Ao Ñe´é
(The Lenguage of Clothes)
by Marité Zaldívar (María Teresa Carolina Zaldívar Rolón)
2002
29
¿Cuáles son los aportes que hoy
día nos brinda la cultura guaraní, con
sus maderos cruzados, en nuestro
rumbo hacia el tercer milenio? Los
maderos cruzados, la cruz florida
(prehispánica) de Ñanderuvusú (Dios
eterno), portador del mbaekua´a (la
sabiduría), simboliza la unión del ser
humano con lo divino, recordando
su horizontalidad entre los seres
humanos y los demás elementos de la
naturaleza.
Hoy que hemos roto los velos
y que, gracias a la circulación de
información y al saber popular,
podemos conocer, evaluar y valorar las ideas que regían en décadas
pasadas, decimos con justicia que la
cultura guaraní siempre contó con
principios universales que contribuían
al equilibrio de la naturaleza humana
y del mundo.
Los guaraníes reconocían el valor
del “ser” (tekoete), del ser humano en
su plenitud, dueño de sí mismo, el
verdadero “ser” con poderes sobre sí
mismo, sobre la naturaleza, sobre lo
trascendental, con autoestima personal y comunitaria: “yo valgo”, “yo soy”,
“yo puedo”. Si yo me siento incapaz,
impotente, imperfecto, ¿cómo puedo
construir o generar una sociedad
justa, equitativa, o armoniosa?
Hay palabras milenarias que hoy
se han vuelto insignias para la construcción de una sociedad más justa
y equitativa: tekó jojá (la equidad, que
no es lo mismo que la igualdad, pues
muchas cosas no pueden ser iguales,
ya que la creación, el origen del génesis, las hizo diferentes); ñemongueta
(el diálogo); jekupyty (el consenso).
Obtener una simple mayoría por
votos no es lo mismo que asumir una
responsabilidad o tomar un rumbo
deliberado por consenso.
El voluntariado, tan pregonado
y ensalzado por la sociedad, que nos
obliga a convertirlo en un mecanismo
permanente para resolver los conflic-
Tapir´s Head
(Agüero-Ndechi Mborevi)
Chiriguano ethnic group
(Tupi Guaraní)
1990
tos creados por un individualismo
ultrajante, ya estaba establecido en el
ojopói.
La equidad de género. En la
naturaleza la mujer y el varón no
eran ni superior ni inferior el uno al
otro; simplemente eran diferentes y
se complementaban, cada uno en su
papel. La mujer tenía su espacio, su
intimidad, su gobierno, su saber. La
mujer era y sigue siendo entre las comunidades guaraníes sobrevivientes la
“oga jara” o dueña del hogar, de todo
lo que atañe a la administración de
los bienes familiares; no es la servija
o sirvienta, sometida al varón, esclava
sexual, incapaz de administrar sus
bienes (conceptos introducidos por el
conquistador).
La búsqueda de la Tierra sin Mal
(yvy maraey) el catolicismo rápidamente la interpretó como la búsqueda
del paraíso después de la muerte,
pero hoy en día, con los aportes de
Viper´s Head (Agüero-Ndechi Mboi)
Chiriguano ethnic group
(Tupi Guaraní)
1990
la ciencia y del desarrollo sostenible,
se puede afirmar que el guaraní
vivía en un paraíso terrenal, en una
tierra donde todo el año manaban
miel, agua, frutas y alimento. El área
boscosa del hábitat de la comunidad
guaraní, desde el Caribe, pasando
por el Amazonas y los territorios de
los ríos Paraná y Paraguay, tiene una
naturaleza extremadamente generosa
que el ser humano contamina, empobrece y destruye, extrayéndole todo
sin dar nada a cambio.
Al ocupar el ser humano un territorio, lo contamina, lo desgasta y debilita la tierra; los recursos naturales
se agotan, menoscabando el equilibrio
del cuerpo y el espíritu. Al observar
este desgaste natural, el guaraní realizaba migraciones periódicas y cíclicas
para darle tiempo a la naturaleza de
recuperarse, logrando de esa forma
revertir la conducta destructiva del
ser humano para que las generaciones
30
Fox Head (Agüero-Ndechi Aguara)
Chiriguano ethnic group
(Tupi Guaraní)
1993
posteriores pudieran seguir disfrutando del mismo paraíso terrenal.
El guaraní no tenía templos de
piedra; su templo era la naturaleza.
Para la comunidad guaraní la tierra
era sagrada y es sagrada; es la madre
de todos. Por esta razón, hasta el día
de hoy sus descendientes, en su opy o
casa de devoción, mantienen el piso o
la base de tierra y oran descalzos.
El saber guaraní acerca de la
naturaleza humana y del uso de las
plantas (la etnomedicina y la etnobótanica) ha sido confirmado por la
sofisticada ciencia de nuestros días.
También debemos mencionar la
riqueza del idioma guaraní; onomatopéyico, sincrético, sonoro, sintético y
profundo, lo aprecian los extranjeros,
pero además sigue fuertemente ligado
a la cotidianeidad del paraguayo
actual.
Estilos del arte
indígena guaraní
Ticio Escobar
(resumido y adaptado por Félix Ángel)
Un primer criterio que puede adoptarse para diferenciar a los distintos pueblos indígenas asentados
en territorio paraguayo es el basado en sus módulos
subsistenciales. Así, los distintos grupos étnicos pueden clasificarse en dos sistemas culturales según sean
fundamentalmente cazadores-recolectores o agricultores. Dentro del primer grupo se encuentran las
comunidades pertenecientes a las familias lingüísticas zamuco, mataco, guaykurú, y maskoy ubicadas
en el Gran Chaco (región occidental de Paraguay),
mientras que el segundo comprende a las que viven
en la región oriental. Esta clasificación, hecha por
comodidad didáctica, es una referencia elemental
que sólo pretende ubicar rápidamente a los grupos
étnicos para comprender mejor el arte que producen.
31
Untitled 2001
Photograph by Jaun Aníbal Britos Basualdo
El sistema de caza y recolección, así como el ethos nomádico a él
vinculado, condiciona una trama cultural más flexible a incorporaciones
y adaptaciones diversas. La cultura
agrícola guaraní, pendiente de los ciclos naturales, es más conservadora y
cerrada a innovaciones. Estos factores
desempeñaron un papel importante
en el momento de la transculturación colonial y marcan con fuerza la
producción simbólica de las diferentes
sociedades indígenas, permitiendo
identificar rasgos comunes y diferencias.
Tanto las sociedades cazadoras
como las agricultoras se estructuran
en torno a un núcleo mítico ritual
que aglutina las instancias del poder,
el orden jurídico, el ocio, la belleza
y la religión. Por lo tanto, las formas básicas de sus manifestaciones
visuales guardan relación con el rito
y la autoidentificación tribal. Dichas
formas parten del cuerpo humano,
soporte privilegiado de la expresión
indígena: la ornamentación plumaria,
el tatuaje y la pintura corporal entre
los chaqueños y el arte plumario entre
los guaraníes constituyen los arquetipos básicos. Por otro lado, la fiesta
ritual es en sí una obra de arte total
que integra la creación colectiva.
Reflejos de la esencia Aché
(Reflections of the Aché People)
Photograph by Bjarne Fostervold
Otro gran foco de creación
estética se origina en la producción
económica. Los objetos ligados a la
subsistencia requieren de formas
arraigadas en el imaginario colectivo,
como la cestería guaraní y los tejidos
chaqueños de caraguatá. La conexión
de dichas formas con el ritual y la
producción económica tiene significaciones culturales profundas en cada
etnia. Por eso tienden a ser estables
y a resistir los embates de la historia.
Aun las culturas cazadoras tienden a
mantener una cierta reserva simbólica
que sirve de brújula en los procesos de
cambio. Aunque se incorporen signos
nuevos y se renueven las técnicas, el
esquema antiguo del rito se conserva.
Las formas periféricas, aunque
se nutren estilísticamente de fuentes
más fuertes que ellas, tienen menos
responsabilidades expresivas y pueden
ceder a la seducción o imposición de
novedades técnicas. La adaptación de
los abalorios y motivos de tejidos en
lana de los chaqueños, la ornamentación en la cerámica de los chiriguanos y los caduceos, la talla zoomorfa
chiripá o manjui, la cestería chamacoco, por ejemplo, suponen procesos
de hibridación que han abierto
posibilidades nuevas a la expresión.
Teniendo en cuenta lo anterior,
pueden distinguirse básicamente tres
grupos de estética guaraní.
El clásico guaraní
Ascetas y rigurosos, impulsados
obsesivamente por la vida interior y la
búsqueda de la plenitud de la experiencia humana, los guaraníes desarrollan una estética sobria y austera. Sus
signos ornamentales corresponden
a soluciones escuetas, sus diseños
buscan la síntesis, sus ornamentos son
esenciales y sus coreografías exactas.
Este laconismo afecta a las formas
básicas y periféricas. Aunque la documentación es muy escasa, podría suponerse que el antiguo arte plumario
guaraní era exuberante y se fue depurando a partir de la colonia. Los suntuosos mantos de pluma, las coronas y
los cubrenucas fueron simplificándose
y la parquedad que revisten hoy día
expresa el repliegue de una cultura
sitiada y la depredación ecológica. Las
generosas pinturas corporales se han
abreviado en señas faciales mínimas:
los mbyá subrayan el enigma de su
identidad con pequeños ángulos
oscuros y curvas que concentran en el
rostro la escritura casi perdida de su
grupo étnico.
33
Ao ñe´é (Headdress with Feathers)
by Marité Zaldivar (Maria Teresa
Carolina Zaldívar Rolón)
Feathers and rope
2002
Los guaraníes
chaqueños
Los chiriguanos, llamados comúnmente guarayos y autodenominados
avá o mbyá, son descendientes de
grupos tupíes y guaraníes que, en
épocas inmediatamente anteriores
a la conquista española, emigraron
a la región occidental por impulsos
bélicos, ideales religiosos, razones
políticas y presiones económicas.
Los chiriguanos tuvieron que hacer
enormes esfuerzos para readaptarse
al medio subandino y reformular su
afirmación guaraní. Por eso el arte
chiriguano debe considerarse un caso
atípico dentro del guaraní. Sus formas
están basadas en la hibridez y el desdoblamiento.
Los guaranizados
Considerados parte de la familia
lingüística guaraní, los aché desarrollan una estética propia que expresa
sus muchas diferencias socioculturales como grupo cazador-recolector.
Su sensibilidad estética es oscura y
agresiva, y nada tiene que ver con
la delicada armonía y sutileza de los
guaraníes. Sus colores son secos y
sombríos. Es el único grupo étnico
que no incorpora los colores primarios, inclinándose por el negro,
los grises y los pardos. Sus signos
son fuertes y están animados de una
expresividad bárbara, de una poética
hosca que se manifiesta en el desprecio por la delicadeza y la preferencia
por la rudeza de lo áspero. El ámbito
aché es un mundo duro que contrasta
con la dulzura serena de sus cánticos,
la calidez y sonrisa de sus moradores.
__________________________
* Fuente: La belleza de los otros:
arte indígena del Paraguay (1993), Centro de
Documentación e Investigaciones de Arte
Popular e Indígena del Centro de Artes Visuales, RP Ediciones, Asunción, Paraguay.
Ñandutí Vera
(Resplandescent Embroidery)
by Marité Zaldívar
(María Teresa Carolina
Zaldívar Rolón)
2002
Two Cherubs
(architectural decoration)
Carved stone
First half of the 18th century
Gargoyle (architectural decoration)
Carved stone
First half of the 18th century
34
Curricula Vitae
Bartomeu
Melià i Lliteres
Sacerdote jesuita, nace en Porreres
(Baleares), España, el 7 de diciembre
de 1932. En 1954 llega al Paraguay,
donde realiza estudios de carácter
antropológico, lingüístico y filosófico
sobre la cultura guaraní. Es miembro de la Société des Américanistes
de París (1968), de la Comisión
Nacional de Bilingüismo del Ministerio de Educación y Cultura de
la República del Paraguay (1994),
y de la Academia Paraguaya de la
Lengua Española; correspondiente
de la Real Academia Española, de
la Academia Paraguaya de Historia
(2004) y de la Real Academia de la
Historia de Madrid, y Director del
Departamento de Lengua y Cultura
del Centro de Estudios Paraguayos
“Antonio Guasch”. Entre sus obras
figuran Historia de la lengua guaraní
(Ed. Mafre, Barcelona, España),
El guaraní conquistado y reducido:
ensayos de etnohistoria (Biblioteca
Paraguaya de Antropología del
Centro de Estudios Antropológicos
de la Universidad Católica de Asunción, Asunción, Paraguay, 1986),
Guaraníes y jesuitas en tiempo de las
misiones: una bibliografía didáctica
(Ed. CEPAG, Asunción, Paraguay,
1995). Se le considera uno de los
principales estudiosos de la cultura
guaraní, junto a León Cadogan,
Egon Schaden y Curt Nimuendajú
Unkel.
Margarita Miró Ibars
Ticio Escobar
Nace en Asunción, Paraguay, en
1952. Egresa de la Facultad de
Filosofía de la Universidad Nacional
de Asunción con la carrera de Historia. Desde 1983 vive en Carapeguá,
donde inicia sus investigaciones
sobre temas relacionados con la
identidad nacional y la cultura tradicional. Ha sido Directora General
de Investigación y Apoyo Cultural
del Viceministerio de Cultura, y ha
participado en proyectos interinsti
o el patrocinio de la UNESCO para
salvaguardar géneros musicales
y danzas de minorías en vías de
extinción. Cuenta entre sus obras
Karu Reko: antropología culinaria
paraguaya (Servilibro, Asunción,
Paraguay, 2004); Formación natural
y social del entorno de los humedales
del Ypoá y Carapeguá (Servilibro,
Asunción, Paraguay, 2002); Mujeres
que tejen arte: origen y sentido de la
artesanía carapegüeña (Carapeguá,
Paraguay, 2002); Alimentación y
religiosidad paraguaya: chipa pan
sagrado (Servilibro, Asunción,
Paraguay, 2001); Tembí¨u Rehegua:reivindicación de la cultura culinaria
guaraní y paraguaya (Ed. Salesiana,
Carapeguá, Paraguay, 1995).
Nace en Asunción, Paraguay, en
1947. Es abogado y doctor en
filosofía, crítico de arte y gestor
cultural, así como fundador y Director del Museo de Arte Indígena del
Paraguay (1993-2005) y ex Director
de Cultura del municipio de la ciudad de Asunción. Trabaja con Teixeira (BR) en diagnósticos y propuestas
para fomentar el desarrollo cultural
en Latinoamérica. Es miembro fundador de la Comisión de Solidaridad
con los Pueblos Indígenas y está afiliado a diversas instituciones referidas
a la cultura nacional y latinoamericana. Ha dirigido en Paraguay, como
Mato en Caracas (VE), el proyecto
Identidades en Tránsito, patrocinado
por la Fundación Rockefeller. Ha
recibido varios galardones, entre
ellos la distinción de Crítico Latinoamericano del Año otorgada en
1985 por la Sección Argentina de la
Asociación Internacional de Críticos
de Arte (AICA); el Premio Príncipe
Klaus de Holanda por sus investigaciones, corpus teórico y ensayos
sobre el arte indígena; y el Premio
Héroe Urbano de la Fundación Príncipe Klaus. Entre sus obras figuran
La belleza de los otros: arte indígena
del Paraguay (RP Ediciones, Asunción, Paraguay, 1993); La maldición
de Nemur: acerca del arte, el mito y el
ritual de los indígenas ishir del Gran
Chaco paraguayo (Centro de Artes
Visuales–Museo del Barro, Asunción, Paraguay, 1999).
Works of the Exhibit
Property of the National Secretariat of Tourism, Collection of the Lythic
Museum of the Jesuit Mission of the Guaranies of the Holy Trinity
1. Title: Gargoyle (architectural decoration)
Artist: Anonymous
Medium: Carved stone
Provenance: Jesuit Mission of
the Guaranies of the Holy Trinity,
Trinidad, Paraguay
Dimensions: h: 35 cm; w: 50
cm; d: 70 cm
Date: First half of the 18th
century
Ownership and collection:
Property of the National Secretariat of Tourism, Collection of
the Lythic Museum of the Jesuit
Mission of the Guaranies of the
Holy Trinity
2. Title: Flower Motif (architectural decoration)
Artist: Anonymous
Medium: Carved stone
Provenance: Jesuit Mission of
the Guaranies of the Holy Trinity,
Trinidad, Paraguay.
Dimensions: h: 45 cm; w: 55
cm; d: 30 cm
Date: First half of the 18th
century
Ownership and collection:
Property of the National Secretariat of Tourism, Collection of
the Lythic Museum of the Jesuit
Mission of the Guaranies of the
Holy Trinity
4. Title: Two Cherubs
(architectural decoration)
Artist: Anonymous
Medium: Carved stone
Provenance: Jesuit Mission of
the Guaranies of the Holy Trinity,
Trinidad, Paraguay
Dimensions: h: 15 cm; w: 50
cm; d: 20 cm
Date: First half of the 18th
century
Ownership and collection:
Property of the National Secretariat of Tourism, Collection of
the Lythic Museum of the Jesuit
Mission of the Guaranies of the
Holy Trinity
5. Title: Fauna and
Flora Motif (architectural
decoration)
Artist: Anonymous
Medium: Carved stone
Provenance: Jesuit Mission of
the Guaranies of the Holy Trinity,
Trinidad, Paraguay
Dimensions: h: 85 cm; w:
1,05 cm; d: 40 cm
Date: First half of the 18th
century
Ownership and collection:
Property of the National Secretariat of Tourism, Collection of
the Lythic Museum of the Jesuit
Mission of the Guaranies of the
Holy Trinity
3. Title: Fauna and
Flora Motif (architectural
decoration)
Artist: Anonymous
Medium: Carved stone
Provenance: Jesuit Mission of
the Guaranies of the Holy Trinity,
Trinidad, Paraguay
Dimensions: h: 85 cm; w:
1,05 cm; d: 40 cm
Date: First half of the 18th
century
Ownership and collection:
Property of the National Secretariat of Tourism, Collection of
the Lythic Museum of the Jesuit
Mission of the Guaranies of the
Holy Trinity
Property of Guido Boggiani Archaeological and Ethnographic
Museum, San Lorenzo, Paraguay
6. Title: Tatarendy´y or Ava Kue Chiripa Altar
Artist: Ethnic group Ava Guaraní (Tupi Guaraní)
Medium: Various types of wood
Provenance: Fortuna, Department of Kanindeju, Paraguay
Dimensions: Altar: h: 2 m; w: 20 cm; l: 1.45 m; Batea: 27 cm; w:
28 cm; l: 2.41 m
Date: 1995
Ownership and collection: Property of the Guido Boggiani
Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum, San Lorenzo, Paraguay
Description: The Altar is composed of 55 pieces, 18 of which are
structures. The central piece (cenit) is called Kurusu or cross, and
supports the Flowered Cross called Kurusu Poty, where the migratory
birds rest. The central rod signifies the body of Ñande Ru Pave or
Father of All.
7. Title: Winged Face Mask (Agüero-Güero Chova Pepo)
Artist: Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní)
Medium: Samu´u and Jukyry Rusu wood
Provenance: Santa Teresita, Department of Boquerón, Paraguay
Dimensions: h: 28 cm; w: 38 cm; d: 12 cm
Date: 1989
Ownership and collection: Guido Boggiani Archaeological and
Ethnographic Museum, San Lorenzo, Paraguay
Description: Mask used during the Kandavare or Chiriguano
Carnival. It represents the soul of young and adult people. The wings
traditionally symbolize the soul of birds such as the falcon, which
reincarnate the Shaman (Ipaje) and the worriers (Kerymba).
8. Title: Winged Face Mask (Agüero-Güero Chova Pepo)
Artist: Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní)
Medium: Samu´u and Jukyry Rusu wood
Provenance: Santa Teresita, Department of Boquerón, Paraguay
Dimensions: h: 28 cm; w: 38 cm; d: 12 cm
Date: 1990
Ownership and collection: Archaeological and Ethnographic
Guido Boggiani Museum, San Lorenzo, Paraguay
Description: Mask used during the Kandavare or Chiriguano
Carnival. It represents the soul of young and adult people. The wings
traditionally symbolize the soul of birds such as the falcon, which
reincarnate the Shaman (Ipaje) and the worriers (Kerymba).
9. Title: Owl Mask (Agüero-Ndechi Ñakurutu)
Artist: Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní)
Medium: Samu´u and Jukyry Rusu wood
Provenance: Santa Teresita, Department of Boquerón, Paraguay
Dimensions: h: 24 cm; w: 12 cm; d: 12 cm
Date: 1990
Ownership and collection: Archaeological and Ethnographic
Guido Boggiani Museum, San Lorenzo, Paraguay
Description: Mask used during the Kandavare or Chiriguano
Carnival. It represents the soul of older people transformed into
undesirable birds such as the owl (Ñakurutu).
10. Title: Owl Mask (Agüero-Ndechi Ñakurutu)
Artist: Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní)
Medium: Samu´u and Jukyry Rusu wood
Provenance: Santa Teresita, Department of Boquerón, Paraguay
Dimensions: h: 24 cm; w: 19 cm; d: 9 cm
Date: 1990
Ownership and collection: Archaeological and Ethnographic
Guido Boggiani Museum, San Lorenzo, Paraguay
Description: Mask used during the Kandavare or Chiriguano
Carnival. It represents the soul of older people transformed into
undesirable birds such as the owl (Ñakurutu).
11. Title: Mask with Peak
and Crest (Agüero-Güero Mbae Poty)
Artist: Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní)
Medium: Samu´u and Jukyry Rusu wood
Provenance: Santa Teresita, Department of Boquerón, Paraguay
Dimensions: h: 38 cm; w: 15 cm; d: 11 cm
Date: 1986
Ownership and collection: Archaeological and Ethnographic
Guido Boggiani Museum, San Lorenzo, Paraguay
Description: Mask used during the Kandavare or Chiriguano
Carnival. It represents the soul of young and adult people. The crest
represents the flowering of the soul (Poty). The cheeks are painted
with a red circle, a traditional feature of the facial ornamentation of
the Chiriguano people.
12. Title: Mask with Peak and Crest (Agüero-Güero Mbae
Poty)
Artist: Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní)
Medium: Samu´u and Jukyry Rusu wood
Provenance: Santa Teresita, Department of Boquerón, Paraguay
Dimensions: h: 38 cm; w: 15 cm; d: 11 cm
Date: 1986
Ownership and collection: Archaeological and Ethnographic
Guido Boggiani Museum, San Lorenzo, Paraguay
Description: Mask used during the Kandavare or Chiriguano
Carnival. It represents the soul of young and adult people. The crest
represents the flowering of the soul (Poty). The cheeks are painted
with a red circle, a traditional feature of the facial ornamentation of
the Chiriguano people.
13. Title: Mask with Peak and Crest (Agüero-Güero Mbae Poty)
Artist: Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní)
Medium: Samu´u and Jukyry Rusu wood
Provenance: Santa Teresita, Department of Boquerón, Paraguay
Dimensions: h: 38 cm; w: 15 cm; d: 11 cm
Date: 1996
Ownership and collection: Archaeological and Ethnographic
Guido Boggiani Museum, San Lorenzo, Paraguay
Description: Mask used during the Kandavare or Chiriguano Carnival. It represents the soul of young and adult people. The crest represents
the flowering of the soul (Poty). The cheeks are painted red, a traditional
feature of the facial ornamentation of the
Chiriguano people.
14. Title: Mask with Peak and Crest
(Agüero-Güero Mbae Poty)
Artist: Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní)
Medium: Samu´u and Jukyry Rusu wood
Provenance: Santa Teresita, Department of Boquerón, Paraguay
Dimensions: h: 35 cm; w: 15 cm; d: 12 cm
Date: 1986
Ownership and collection: Archaeological and Ethnographic
Guido Boggiani Museum, San Lorenzo, Paraguay
Description: Mask used during the Kandavare or Chiriguano
Carnival. It represents the soul of young and adult people. The crest
represents the flowering of the soul (Poty). The cheeks are painted red,
a traditional feature of the facial ornamentation of the
Chiriguano people.
15. Title: Mask with Peak and Crest (Agüero-Güero Mbae
Poty)
Artist: Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní)
Medium: Samu´u and Jukyry Rusu wood
Provenance: Santa Teresita, Department of Boquerón, Paraguay
Dimensions: h: 38 cm; w: 15 cm; d: 11 cm
Date: 1996
Ownership and collection: Archaeological and Ethnographic
Guido Boggiani Museum, San Lorenzo, Paraguay
Description: Mask used during the Kandavare or Chiriguano
Carnival. It represents the soul of young and adult people. The crest
represents the flowering of the soul (Poty). The cheeks are painted red,
a traditional feature of the facial ornamentation of the
Chiriguano people.
16. Title: Mask with Peak and Crest (Agüero-Güero Mbae
Poty)
Artist: Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní)
Medium: Samu´u and Jukyry Rusu wood
Provenance: Santa Teresita, Department of Boquerón, Paraguay
Dimensions: h: 38 cm; w: 14 cm; d: 11 cm
Date: 1986
Ownership and collection: Archaeological and Ethnographic
Guido Boggiani Museum, San Lorenzo, Paraguay
Description: Mask used during the Kandavare or Chiriguano
Carnival. It represents the soul of young and adult people. The crest
represents the flowering of the soul (Poty). The cheeks are painted red,
a traditional feature of the facial ornamentation of the
Chiriguano people.
17. Title: Colibri´s Head (Agüero-Ndechi Maino)
Artist: Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní)
Medium: Samu´u and Jukyry Rusu wood
Provenance: Santa Teresita, Department of Boquerón, Paraguay
Dimensions: h: 14 cm; w: 17 cm; d: 43 cm
Date: 1990
Ownership and collection: Archaeological and Ethnographic
Guido Boggiani Museum, Paraguay
Description: Mask used during the Kandavare or Chiriguano
Carnival. It represents the soul of older people transformed into
harmless animals like the Colibri (Maino), and expression of the
Indestructible Colibrí (Maino Ju), the soul that emanates rays (Tiri).
18. Title: Tucan’s Head (Agüero-Ndechi Tukä)
Artist: Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní)
Medium: Samu´u and Jukyry Rusu wood
Provenance: Santa Teresita, Department of Boquerón, Paraguay
Dimensions: h: 14 cm; w: 19 cm; d: 45 cm
Date: 1992
Ownership and collection: Archaeological and Ethnographic
Guido Boggiani Museum, San Lorenzo, Paraguay
Description: Mask used during the Kandavare or Chiriguano
Carnival. It represents the soul of older people transformed into
harmless animals like the Tucán (Tucä), and expression of the Mithycal
Tucan (Tucä Ju/Tucä Vusu).
19. Title: Fox Head (Agüero-Ndechi Aguara)
Artist: Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní)
Medium: Samu´u and Jukyry Rusu wood
Provenance: Santa Teresita, Department of Boquerón, Paraguay
Dimensions: h: 13 cm; w: 18 cm; d: 43 cm
Date: 1993
Ownership and collection: Archaeological and Ethnographic
Guido Boggiani Museum, San Lorenzo, Paraguay
Description: Mask used during the Kandavare or Chiriguano Carnival. It represents the soul of older people which after reincarnation
are transformed at night into animals like the fox (Aguara).
20. Title: Tapir´s Head (Agüero-Ndechi Mborevi)
Artist: Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní)
Medium: Samu´u and Jukyry Rusu wood
Provenance: Santa Teresita, Department of Boquerón, Paraguay
Dimensions: h: 20 cm; w: 19 cm; d: 36 cm
Date: 1990
Ownership and collection: Archaeological and Ethnographic
Guido Boggiani Museum, San Lorenzo, Paraguay
Description: Mask used during the Kandavare or Chiriguano Carnival. It represents the soul of older people transformed into harmless
animals such as the Tapir (Mborevi).
21. Title: Viper´s Head (Agüero-Ndechi Mboi)
Artist: Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní)
Medium: Samu´u and Jukyry Rusu wood
Provenance: Santa Teresita, Department of Boquerón, Paraguay
Dimensions: h: 14 cm; w: 19 m; d: 19 cm
Date: 1990
Ownership and collection: Archaeological and Ethnographic
Guido Boggiani Museum, San Lorenzo, Paraguay
Description: This type of mask is used during the Kandavare or
Chiriguano Carnival. It represents the soul of older people which after
reincarnation are transformed into dangerous animals such as the
serpent (Mboi Ru).
22. Title: Jaguar´s Head (Agüero-Ndechi Jagua-Jagua)
Artist: Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní)
Medium: Samu´u and Jukyry Rusu wood
Provenance: Santa Teresita, Department of Boquerón, Paraguay
Dimensions: h: 14 cm; w: 20 cm; d: 26 cm
Date: 1989
Ownership and collection: Archaeological and Ethnographic
Guido Boggiani Museum, San Lorenzo, Paraguay
Description: This type of mask is used during the Kandavare or
Chiriguano Carnival. It represents the soul of older people transformed
into potential enemies like the jaguar (Jagua-Jagua), which must be
annihilated to guarantee one’s survival in the “Areté Guasu”.
23. Title: Violin (Miori)
Artist: Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní)
Medium: Yvyra Ñamandu, Yvyra Ju´Y and Kusupikaywood, strings
of Pindo Rivi
Provenance: Santa Teresita, Department of Boquerón, Paraguay
Dimensions: h: 5 cm; w: 23 cm; d: 65 cm
Date: 1989
Ownership and collection: Archaeological and Ethnographic
Guido Boggiani Museum, San Lorenzo, Paraguay
Description: Instrument utilized by the musicians of the “Arete
Guasu” at the begining of the Great Fiesta or celebration, when the
first masks make their appearance.
24 Title: Flute (Mimby)
24.
Artist: Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní)
A
Medium: Takuati bamboo
M
Provenance: Santa Teresita, Department of Boquerón, Paraguay
P
D
Dimensions: l: 45 cm; d: 2.5 cm
Date: 1989
D
Ownership and collection: Archaeological and Ethnographic
O
Guido Boggiani Museum, San Lorenzo, Paraguay
G
Description: Along with the wooden drum or box
D
(Jukyry Rusu), the Mimby is the main instrument in the “Arete
Guasu” celebration.
Property of the Carlos Colombino Lailla Foundation, on extended loan to the Collection
of the Visual Arts Center (Centro de Artes Visuales / Museo del Barro), Asunción, Paraguay
25. Title: Dying or Asleep Aticulated Figure of Saint
Artist: Unknown
Medium: Carved and polychromed wood
Dimensions: h: 20 cm; w: 23 cm; d: 60 cm
Date: 19th century
Ownership and collection: Property of the Carlos Colombino
Lailla Foundation, on extended loan to the Collection of the Visual
Arts Center (Centro de Artes Visuales / Museo del Barro), Asunción,
Paraguay
Description: Figurines like this were very popular throughout
the colonial period. They could be dressed in different fashions and
accommodated to a variety of positions and situations depending
on the occasion. The same figure could be dressed in an array of
costumes to impersonate different characters, to celebrate a particular
saint or religious individual, especially when availability of religious
iconography was scarce.
26. Title: Figure of Saint or Virgin
Artist: Unknown
Medium: Carved and polychromed wood
Dimensions: h: 49 cm; w: 17 cm; d: 16 cm
Date: 19th century
Ownership and collection: Property of the Carlos Colombino
Lailla Foundation, on extended loan to the Collection of the Visual
Arts Center (Centro de Artes Visuales / Museo del Barro), Asunción,
Paraguay
Description: The frame of this carved figure suggests that in all
probability it was used to represent a virgin, an angel or any other
female character of the Catholic iconography. The bottom was traditionally covered with heavy gowns, tunics or skirts, and the final figure
depended on the use of make up, wigs, wings, tiaras, crowns and
fancy costumery. Figurines like these were very popular throughout
the colonial period. They could be dressed in different fashions and
accommodated a variety of positions and situations depending on
the occasion.
27. Title: Jesus Child Savior of the World
Artist: Unknown, from the Workshops of the Jesuit Missions in
Paraguay
Medium: Carved and polychromed wood
Dimensions: h: 80 cm; w: 26 cm; d: 25 cm
Date: 18th century
Ownership and collection: Property of the Carlos Colombino
Lailla Foundation, on extended loan to the Collection of the Visual
Arts Center (Centro de Artes Visuales / Museo del Barro), Asunción,
Paraguay.
28. Title: The Lord of the Palms
Artist: Unknown
Medium: Carved and polychromed wood
Dimensions: h: 66 cm; w: 60 cm; d: 24 cm
Date: 19th century
Ownership and collection: Property of the Carlos Colombino
Lailla Foundation, on extended loan to the Collection of the Visual
Arts Center (Centro de Artes Visuales / Museo del Barro), Asunción,
Paraguay
Description: The figure represents the New Testament passage
of the triumphal entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem, riding a donkey,
a few days before his arrest and execution. The figure of Jesus is
roughly carved in those areas that are intended to be covered with
fancy garments.
29. Title: Holy Trinity, Virgen Mary and the Angels
Artist: Unknown
Medium: Carved and polychromed wood
Dimensions: h: 46 cm; w: 60 cm; d: 14 cm
Date: Early 20th century
Ownership and collection: Property of the Carlos Colombino
Lailla Foundation, on extended loan to the Collection of the Visual
Arts Center (Centro de Artes Visuales / Museo del Barro), Asunción,
Paraguay
Description: This “retablo” or portable altar is a typical religious
item of the Spanish American household. The more modest the
individual who owned one, the more whimsical the manner in which
the subject matter was interpreted.
30. Title: Saint Rosa of Lima
Artist: Unknown
Medium: Carved and polychromed wood
Dimensions: h: 45 cm; w: 25 cm; d: 5 cm
Date: 19th century
Ownership and collection: Property of the Carlos Colombino
Lailla Foundation, on extended loan to the Collection of the Visual
Arts Center (Centro de Artes Visuales / Museo del Barro), Asunción,
Paraguay
Description: A Peruvian nun elevated to sainthood, Saint Rosa de
Lima became very popular among the mestizo and creole population
of South America during the colonial period up to the present. She
was born in 1586 in Lima, the daughter of wealthy Spanish immigrants. A beautiful girl and devoted daughter, she was so committed
to her vow of chastity, she used pepper and lye to ruin her complexion
so she would not be attractive. She was offered marriage by a very rich
man, but she refused because she wanted to live for Jesus only. She
had to work very hard in order to help her parents when they lost their
fortune and also cared for the poor. Because of her purity and charity
it is said that the Holy Infant Jesus appeared to her several times to tell
her how pleased God is with those who are merciful. She is the first
saint born in South America. She had great devotion to Saint Catherine
of Siena. She died on August 24, 1617.
Property of the National Museum of Fine Arts, Asunción, Paraguay
31. Title: Immaculate
Conception (La Purísima
Concepción)
Artist: Unknown
Medium:
Polychromed carved wood
Dimensions:
h: 77 cm; w: 35 cm; d: 25 cm
Date: Last quarter of the
18th century-first quarter of the
19th century
Ownership and collection:
National Museum of Fine Arts,
Asunción, Paraguay
Description: Religious figure
in the tradition of the HispanicGuaraní Barroque Style.
32. Title: Virgin of the
Candlemas
(Virgen de la Candelaria)
Artist: Unknown
Medium: Polychromed
carved wood
Dimensions: h: 91 cm; w: 33
cm; d: 33 cm
Date: Second half of the 18th
century-first half of the 19th
century
Ownership and collection:
National Museum of Fine Arts,
Asunción, Paraguay
Description: Religious figure
in the tradition of the HispanicGuaran”i Barroque Style.
Private Collection of Ysanne Gayet, Areguá, Paraguay
33. Title: Drum
(Tambor de Vacapi)
Artist: Unknown
Medium: Wood, cowhide
and willow
Dimensions: h: 35 cm;
w: 50 cm; d: 70 cm
Date: Unknown
Ownership and collection:
Private collection of Ysanne
Gayet, Areguá, Paraguay.
34. Title: Aché Family
(Familia Aché)
Artist: Unknown
Medium: Cedar wood
Dimensions: Female: h: 2
m; d: 23 cm; w: 25 cm; male:
h: 1.50 m; d: 25 cm; w: 34 cm;
girl: h: 92 cm; d: 18 cm; w: 20
cm; boy: h: 80 cm; d: 15 cm;
w: 24 cm
Date: Unknown
Ownership and collection:
Private collection of Ysanne
Gayet, Areguá, Paraguay.
36. Title: Apyká Taguá
(Three Chairs in the Shape
of a Tapir)
Artist: Unknown
Medium: Wood and
phyroengraving
Dimensions: 1) h: 30 cm; w:
65 cm; d: 20 cm; 2) h: 33 cm;
w: 75 cm; d: 26 cm; 3) h: 38 cm;
d: 15 cm; w: 25 cm
Date: Unknown
Ownership and collection:
Private collection of Ysanne
Gayet, Areguá, Paraguay.
37. Title: Indigenous Couple
Artist: Unknown
Medium: Wood and
traditional ornaments of the
Guaraní people
Dimensions: Female: h: 88
cm; w: 19 cm; d: 19 cm; male: h:
1 m; w: 27 cm; d: 17 cm
Date: Unknown
Ownership and collection:
Private collection of Ysanne
Gayet, Areguá, Paraguay.
Private Collection of Mr. Oscar Centurión Frontanilla, Asunción, Paraguay
38. Title: Trunk
Artist: Unknown
Medium: Wood and inlaid
wood with naturalistic and
zoomorphic designs
Dimensions: h: 51cm;
l: 1.13 m
Date: 18th century
Ownership and collection:
Private collection of Mr. Oscar
Centurión Frontanilla, Asunción,
Paraguay
Description: The trunk is
decorated with designs inspired
by the Mburucuyá flower, the
Jaguar (Yaguareté) and the fox
(Aguara).
39. Title: Coffer
Artist: Pérez
Medium: Wood inlaid with
river mother-of-pearl
Dimensions: h: 16 cm; w: 13
cm; w: 20 cm
Date: 20th Century
Ownership and collection:
Private collection of Mr. Oscar
Centurión Frontanilla, Asunción,
Paraguay
Description: The coffer is
decorated with naturalistic and
geometric designs.
35. Title: Fish (Pez)
Artist: Unknown
Medium: Wood and
phyroengraving
Dimensions: h: 80 cm; w: 30
cm; d: 10 cm
Date: Unknown
Ownership and collection:
Private collection of Ysanne
Gayet, Areguá, Paraguay.
From the artist Marité Zaldivar
40. Title: Ñandutí Vera
(Resplandescent Embroidery)
Artist: Marité Zaldívar (María
Teresa Carolina Zaldívar Rolón)
Medium: Embroidery
and lights
Dimensions: h: 37 cm; w:
38 cm; d: 63 cm
Date: 2002
Ownership and collection:
Collection of the artist
Description: Ñandutí is a
form a traditional Paraguayan
embroidery.
41. Title: Ao Ñe´é
(The Lenguage of Clothes)
Artist: Marité Zaldívar (María
Teresa Carolina Zaldívar Rolón)
Medium: Dress with Karandá
details and embroidery
Dimensions: h: 94 cm; w: 38
cm; d: 7cm
Date: 2002
Ownership and collection:
Collection of the artist
43. Title: Accessory Ao Ñe´é
(The Lenguage of Clothes)
Artist: Marité Zaldívar (María
Teresa Carolina Zaldívar Rolón)
Medium: Carved porongos
(gourds) and sticks
Dimensions: h: 75 cm; w: 17
cm; d: 17cm
Date: 2002
Ownership and collection:
Collection of the artist
44. Title Ao ñe´ é (Headdress
with Feathers)
Artist: Marité Zaldívar (María
Teresa Carolina Zaldívar Rolón)
Medium: Feathers and rope
Dimensions: h: 80 cm; w: 35 cm;
d: 20 cm
Date: 2002
Ownership and collection:
Collection of the artist
42. Title: Ao Ñe´é
(The Language of Clothes)
Artist: Marité Zaldívar (María
Teresa Carolina Zaldívar Rolón)
Medium: Carved porongos
(gourds) and karandá fabric
Dimensions: h: 1.25 m; w:
39 cm; d: 25cm
Date: 2002
Ownership and collection:
Collection of the artist
From the artist Lucy Yegros
45. Title: Apyka Jejuhu
(Encounter of Seats)
Artist: Lucy Yegros (M. M.
Luciana Yegros)
Medium: Mixed media
on wood
Dimensions: h: 1.24 m;
w: 1.05 m; d: 3 cm
Date: 1987
Ownership and collection:
Private collection, Asunción,
Paraguay
Description: Contemporary
art piece inspired in Guaraní
formal and visual elements.
46. Title: Paí Tavytera Altar
Artist: Unknown, with
intervention by Lucy Yegros (M.
M. Luciana Yegros)
Medium: Wood, gourds,
sticks and rope
Dimensions: h: 1.50 m; w:
38 cm; d: 17 cm
Date: 20th century
Ownership and collection:
Private collection of Ms. Lucy
Yegros, Asunción, Paraguay
Description: This is a replica of
the Paí Tavytera altar.
47. Title: Apyka (Seat)
Artist: Lucy Yegros (M. M.
Luciana Yegros)
Medium: Mixed media
on wood
Dimensions: h: 41 cm;
w: 89 cm; d: 60 cm
Date: 1990
Ownership and collection:
Private Collection, Asunción,
Paraguay
Description: Contemporary art
piece inspired in Guaraní formal
and visual elements.
48. Title: Untitled
Artist: Juan Aníbal Britos
Basualdo, photographer, b.
Asunción, Paraguay, 1967
Medium: photograph
Dimensions: 61 x 76 cm
Date: 2002
Ownership and collection:
Private collection
Description: Aché people,
town of Puerto Barra, Paraguay.
49. Title: Untitled
Artist: Juan Aníbal Britos
Basualdo, photographer, b.
Asunción, Paraguay, 1967
Medium: photograph
Dimensions: 61 x 76 cm
Date: 2001
Ownership and collection:
Private collection
Description: Mbya people,
Asunción, Paraguay.
50. Title: Untitled
Artist: Juan Aníbal Britos
Basualdo, photographer, b.
Asunción, Paraguay, 1967
Medium: photograph
Dimensions: 61 x 76 cm
Date: 2001
Ownership and collection:
Private collection
Description: Mbya people,
settlement of Ypaú Señorita,
Paraguay.
51. Title: Untitled
Artist: Juan Aníbal Britos
Basualdo, photographer, b.
Asunción, Paraguay, 1967
Medium: photograph
Dimensions: 61 x 76 cm
Date: 2001
Ownership and collection:
Private collection
Description: Mbya people,
town of Campo 9, Paraguay.
52. Title: Untitled
Artist: Juan Aníbal Britos
Basualdo, photographer, b.
Asunción, Paraguay, 1967
Medium: photograph
Dimensions: 61 x 76 cm
Date: 2001
Ownership and collection:
Private collection
Description: Mbya people,
town of Luque, Paraguay.
53. Title: Untitled
Artist: Juan Aníbal Britos
Basualdo, photographer, b.
Asunción, Paraguay, 1967
Medium: photograph
Dimensions: 61 x 76 cm
Date: 1993
Ownership and collection:
Private collection
Description: Mbya people,
Yaguary, Paraguay.
Photos and Videos
54. Title: Untitled
Artist: Juan Aníbal Britos
Basualdo, photographer, b.
Asunción, Paraguay, 1967
Medium: photograph
Dimensions: 61 x 76 cm
Date: 2001
Ownership and collection:
Private collection
Description: Mbya people,
settlement of Ypaú Señorita,
Paraguay.
55. Title: Untitled
Artist: Juan Aníbal Britos
Basualdo, photographer, b.
Asunción, Paraguay, 1967
Medium: photograph
Dimensions: 61 x 76 cm
Date: 2001
Ownership and collection:
Private collection
Description: Mbya people,
town of Nueva Esperanza,
Paraguay.
56. Title: Reflejos de la
esencia Aché (Reflections of
the Aché People)
Artist: Bjarne Fostervold,
photographer, b. Cochabamba,
Bolivia, 1958
Medium: photograph
Dimensions: 94 x 125 cms
Date: n/a
Ownership and collection:
Private collection
Description: Aché young
man, town of Puerto Barra,
Departamento Alto Paraná,
Paraguay.
57. Title: Reflejos de la
esencia Aché (Reflections of
the Aché People)
Artist: Bjarne Fostervold,
photographer, b. Cochabamba,
Bolivia, 1958
Medium: photograph
Dimensions: 125 x 94 cms
Date: n/a
Ownership and collection:
Private collection
Description: Aché child, town
of Puerto Barra, Departamento
Alto Paraná, Paraguay.
58. Title: Reflejos de la
esencia Aché (Reflections of
the Aché People)
Artist: Bjarne Fostervold,
photographer, b. Cochabamba,
Bolivia, 1958
Medium: photograph
Dimensions: 94 1/2 x
125 cms
Date: n/a
Ownership and collection:
Private collection
Description: town of
Puerto Barra, Departamento Alto
Paraná, Paraguay.
59. Title: Reflejos de la
esencia Aché (Reflections of
the Aché people)
Artist: Bjarne Fostervold,
photographer, b. Cochabamba,
Bolivia, 1958
Medium: photograph
Dimensions: 125 x 94 1/2 cms
Date: n/a
Ownership and collection:
Private collection
Description: Aché people,
town of Puerto Barra, Departamento Alto Paraná, Paraguay
60. Title: Reflejos de la
esencia Aché (Reflections of
the Aché People)
Artist: Bjarne Fostervold,
photographer, b. Cochabamba,
Bolivia, 1958
Medium: photograph
Dimensions: 115 x 94 cms
Date: n/a
Ownership and collection:
Private collection
Description: Aché family,
town of Puerto Barra, Departamento Alto Paraná, Paraguay.
61. Title: Reflejos de la
esencia Aché (Reflections of
the Aché People)
Artist: Bjarne Fostervold,
photographer, b. Cochabamba,
Bolivia, 1958, Paraguay, 19..
Medium: photograph
Dimensions: 94 x 114
1/2 cms
Date: n/a
Ownership and collection:
Private collection
Description: Aché child,
town of Puerto Barra, Departamento Alto Paraná, Paraguay.
62. Title: Reflejos de la
esencia Aché (Reflections of
the Aché People)
Artist: Bjarne Fostervold,
photographer, b. Cochabamba,
Bolivia, 1958Medium: photograph
Dimensions: 116 x 96 cms
Date: n/a
Ownership and collection:
Private collection
Description: Aché man,
town of Puerto Barra, Departamento Alto Paraná, Paraguay.
63. Title: Reflejos de la
esencia Aché (Reflections of
the Aché People)
Artist: Bjarne Fostervold,
photographer, b. Cochabamba,
Bolivia, 1958Medium: photograph
Dimensions: 94 x 115
1/2 cms
Date: n/a
Ownership and collection:
Private collection
65. Title: Arete Guasu (Carnaval Indígena)
Artist: Pedro Ramírez González; camera and script: Pedro Ramírez
González; editor: Eugenio Martínez; and production assistants:
Amapola Samaniego and Mónica Chaparro
Medium: DVD
Length: 31 minutes
Date: 1997
Ownership and collection: Teleducación, Ministry of Education and
Culture, Asunción, Paraguay
Description: Illustrates the chiriguano ritual, performed at the
Paraguayan Chaco, in honor of Tupâ, the God of the natives.
64. Title: EMUHNO (The Creation of the World)
Artist: Augusto Netto Sisa, with the collaboration of Flavia Netto,
Rafael Kohan and Jose Pedersen (SEVOI Films); e-mail: agu_ns@
hotmail.com
Medium: DVD Pal Animation
Length: 3 ft. 20 in.
Date: Paraguay, 2004
Ownership and collection: Collection of the Inter-American
Development Bank Cultural Center
Description: IDB Cultural Center II Inter-American Biennial of Video
Art, First prize (ex aequo). The creation of the world is explained with
drawings by a shaman of the Tomaraho community, in the Northern
part of the Chaco region, Paraguay. The video captures a limpid and
unspoiled vision of the indigenous universe, and views the origins of
life as a gift from the cosmic forces that granted man and everything
else on earth the gift of existence, and made humans accountable
for their destiny.
Acknowledgments
The IDB Cultural Center would like to thank all persons and institutions in Paraguay who helped make this
exhibition possible, especially: Her Excellency Leila Rachid Cowles, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Asunción, Paraguay;
Orlando Ferrero Caballero, Alternate Executive Director for Paraguay at the Inter-American Development Bank
(IDB); His Excellency James Spalding, Ambassador of Paraguay to the White House, Washington DC; Alejandra
Artigas and Tania Plate, Cultural Officers, Cultural Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,Museo Lítco de la
Misión Jesuítica de los Guaraníes de la Santísima Trinidad; Museo Arqueológico y Entográfico Guido Boggiani, San
Lorenzo; Centro de Artes Visuales/Mueso del Barro, Asunción; Carlos Colombiano Lailla Foundation, Asunción;
Mueso Nacional de Bellas Artes, Asunción; Asociación Faro para las Artes in Asunción; Ysanne Gayet, in Areguá;
photographers Juan Aní Britos Basualdo and Bjarne Fostervold; and artists Marité Zaldívar and Lucy Yegros. The
Cultural Center is also grateful to Alvaro Cubillos, IDB Representative in Asunción; and to Marta Maldonado de
Corvalán, EXR Officer at the IDB Representation in Asunción.
Inter-American Development Bank
Cultural Center Art Gallery
1300 New York Avenue, N.W.
Tel. 202 623 3774 - Fax 202 623 3192
e-mail IDBCC@iadb.org
www.iadb.org/cultural