The Indigenous Uprising is still confined to the margins of the critical reading produced at the 59th Venice Biennale. Although there are two pavilions in Giardini (with 29 of the 80 foreign participations) and three in Arsenale (which houses 30 other “national representations) they highlight indigenous colonial narratives in opposition to the dominant histories of Western art, as well as parallel events or national pavilions. Elsewhere in Venice, as with the supposedly “controversial” engagement of Bolivia.
Arsenal’s Chile Pavilion hosts the Torba Tull Hall Gallery. In Selk’nam language, Hol-Hol Tol means “the heart of the peatlands,” according to Himani Molina, Selk’nam writer and craftsman, President of Corporación Selk’nam Chile, and founder of Fundación Hach Saye, an organization created in 2019 to contribute to the development of Selk’nam culture and territory as a legal entity, given the lack of legal recognition of Selk’nan in Chile, as well as promoting actions that support and defend the biodiversity and ecosystems of Tierra del Fuego.
The official website of the Venice Biennale project reports that peatlands are in dire need of protection. The swamps of Patagonia are in danger because the planet is getting hotter and drier. “Its preservation is intrinsically linked to the future well-being of mankind and, in Patagonia, to the rebirth of the Selcnam people. Peatlands demand to be represented as a living body, just as the Selcname people demand to be recognized as a living culture. Together, we claim a community of mutual care: peat bogs and non-marsh peoples are indivisible.”
In Alex Greenberger’s review for ArtNews, published Thursday, April 21, during the week of the Biennale Preview for Press and Guests, the Chilean participation was highlighted due to queues forming at the entrance to the pavilion. “High-tech stunts that tend to attract attention, such as virtual reality and interactive elements, are a double-edged sword – they can be very entertaining, but can also feel like a waste of time if flashy strategy doesn’t pay off. An example of this is at the Venice Biennale. This year’s Chile winger, who has boasted more than 20-minute streaks to enter Arsenal on opening days,” writes the critic. “Some said the wait wasn’t worth it, although persistent visitors can see a technically complex film installation focused on the peatlands of Patagonia.”
Torba Toll, Karukinka, | | Photo: Barbara Saavedra / Publicity
Greenberger presents the work of the Turba Tol Hol-Hol Tol Gallery as “created by artist Ariel Bustamante, art historian Carla Machiavello, architect Alfredo Thurman, and director Dominga Sotomayor,” adding that Camila Marambio also served as curator on the pavilion, but leaving the list of original participants in Selk’nam is limited to referring to the Chilean national representation website: “Members of the Selk’nam people also participated in its creation; an extensive list of credits can be found at location from the wing.
Therefore, the critic leaves the pressing topic of the show in the background, “his focus is the Selcnam people and their dependence on the natural environment of Tierra del Fuego, which is currently in danger of ecological destruction,” to discuss the queues that form at the entrance to the pavilion: “The wait to see this work is due to the demand for the audience to watch Video from start to finish.Only eight people are allowed at a time, and the job takes about 15 minutes.Once inside, spectators climb up a ramp and enter a widescreen room.The screen itself is not like a traditional screen in a cinema—it’s as thin as a layer of skin, And visitors are asked not to touch it because it is made of some kind of undetected biological material.”
In fact, the biomaterial was “revealed” in promotional materials about Turba Tol Hol-Hol Tol: For the film show at the Chile Pavilion, the biomaterial skin was developed by the team of the Creative Industries lab sinestesia.cc in collaboration with the Fab Lab of the University of Chile. The skin is a bio-complex based on 100% organic ingredients containing algae extracts, collagen and calcareous acetic acid, among others, which act as building agents, plasticizers and natural preservatives, creating a self-sustaining, translucent and extremely smooth skin capable of focusing light through microparticles without loss Transparency, transforming itself into a biodegradable backlit display, which upon contact with moisture, touch and external factors, decomposes and can be colonized by fungi and algae, its durability so far is about 3 months and it is estimated that after about 6 months, it will begin to decompose, easily becoming part off the ground again. In addition, its composition allows them to be joined together by heat sealing, avoiding the use of adhesives and other chemicals to create large films.
Torba Toll Hole | Photo: © Ugo Carmeni / Publicity
Alex Greenberger continues in his review: “As the film begins, viewers are invited to sit on the floor and remain silent – it is not easy to speak under the loud soundtrack of the action, the vibration and thunder of which can be felt physically. One assistant described to me this side of the suite as a sound bathroom. It is difficult. The film describes itself a bit because many of its images are close to abstraction. At first, the camera hovers over what appears to be a swamp. Then the camera slowly sinks into peat and gradually deepens into the ground. Acoustically, the stabilization becomes more and more intense as the camera descends – the effect mimics the initial state that Visitors in it seem intimately connected with nature.”
Is the movie itself difficult to describe? It is an immersion in the ecosystem that ensures the life of the Selk’nam and guarantees, moreover, the life of all creatures that live on this planet, it is a statement to preserve the environment, it is a cry for help, accompanied by ancestral songs Selk’nam, a people who until recently believed to be extinct, who They are in an open legal dispute to be legally recognized and respected in Chile. This statement is located in the country’s national pavilion. It is not at all like the unprecedented setting of the North Pavilion, a few meters away, in the Giardini, which for the first time in history dedicates its exhibition space to Sami people?
“Then there is a period of silence with the camera back up. Back above the ground, there is darkness. Spectral figures emerge from this void, run in a circle and sing as you do. After the film is over, viewers can step out of the way they came in and invite them to touch the transmitted algal fields To the wing all the way.” The critic makes the call to touch fields of moss seem insignificant, but a portion of the Patagonian swamp has been carefully moved to Venice for educational purposes about the rich diversity of this biome. It is no small matter to be able to touch the soil of the swamp peoples declared extinct by Western civilization, but they continue to resist the colonial and ecological catastrophe (read “modern”) that could wipe out all of humanity.
Torba Toll Hole | Photo: © Ugo Carmeni / Publicity
“The Chile Pavilion has so far elicited opposing opinions, with some delighted with the immersive elements and others disappointed after waiting so long to enter. But the long lines are part of the Venice Biennale experience, and often attractive—they showcase the pavilions that people really care about. Could Chile’s strategy yield a prize? It seems unlikely, though the hype is certainly growing,” ends the review by ArtNews, in clear evidence that the author and publication never realized what it was all about. Actress Sonia Boyce, occupying the UK pavilion, has won the Golden Lion for National Representation A symphony of the hidden stories of black musicians in their country. That’s about it.
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