In this workshop, which results from a public performance-exchange and a conference held by the artist at EspaçoBoCA, she seeks to provoke a contemporary reflection on the relationship between humans and what we understand as nature, opening a rupture through which are able to realise that these two concepts can coexist. The artist aims to dismantle the anthropocentric view of the landscape as something that humans inhabit or seek to benefit from, thus encouraging the onlooker to consider the imposed relationships we develop with that same landscape.
Seba Calfuqueo’s work draws on her cultural heritage and life experience as a starting point for a critical reflection on social, cultural and political dynamics surrounding the Mapuche subject in contemporary Chilean and Latin-American society.
Her artistic practice is presented through performance, installation, ceramics and video, with the aim of analysing the cultural similarities and differences between Indigenous cosmologies and Western thought, as well as their consequent stereotypes, while also using research and visual resources and techniques to examine colonial domination. Furthermore, her work addresses topics from feminism, gender studies and environmental rights, grounded in a First Nations perspective within an embodied vision.
Biography
Sebastiana (Seba) Calfuqueo (She/They, b. Santiago, Chile, 1991), Mapuche Trans Artist and Curator in Espacio218 based in Santiago de Chile. Is also part of the Mapuche Rangiñtulewfü collective and Yene Revista. Her work is part of the collections of museums and art galleries such as TATE Modern (England), Centre Pompidou (France), Denver Art Museum (USA), MALBA Museum (Argentina), Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum (Spain), KADIST collection (France), the Museu de Arte Contemporânea do Rio Grande do Sul - MAC RS (Brazil), Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Chile), and MAC (Chile). She participated in the 60th Biennale of Venice, the Whitney Biennial, the 34th Bienal de São Paulo, the 12th Bienal de Mercosur and 22nd Bienal Paiz.
She was awarded by Fundación FAVA in 2018, by Eyebeam’s Fractal Fellowships Program in 2020, by Fundación Ama Amoedo’a FAARA in 2023, and Premio Cuervo by Zona Maco in 2024.