Through her artistic practice, Chonon Bensho has advocated for protecting the critical equilibrium among the diverse elements of the Amazonian ecosystem . In her works, the artist looks to the knowledge of her ancestors, the Shipibo-Konibo people, to foreground the urgency of reconfiguring our contemporary understanding of the territory and this “sacred network of existence.”

The exhibition “Inin Niwe y el mundo puro de los seres eternos” (Inin Niwe and the Pure World of Eternal Beings) shares its title with a book by researcher Pedro Favaron, who found his inspiration in Chonon Bensho’s dreams. The tale follows the learning journey of Inin Niwe (a pseudonym for the author, whose name suggests “the scented breeze of the medicine”) as he encounters various figures who divulge their knowledge of herbal medicines. The narrative concludes with its protagonist attaining an eternal reunion with the ancestors.

In keeping with this progression, the show channels the sacred unity of animals, plants, and humans by bringing together embroideries, drawings, and sculptures featuring kené, the traditional geometric patterns of Chonon Bensho’s community, which manifest intergenerational ties and a desire for collective well-being, and kewé, the embroidered version of these designs. In revisiting some of the origin myths of the Shipibo-Konibo, this work summons the vital energies of the beings that protect rivers. In particular, Chonon Bensho recalls the kené’s aquatic ties through the image of mermaids whose bodies, like that of the great serpent Ronin, are covered in the patterns and, according to legend, helped inspired their replication.

Translated from Spanish by Michele Faguet.

— Giuliana Vidarte