Beyond the Vanishing Maya: Voices of a Land in Resistance
The first exhibition of its kind, featuring contemporary Maya artworks curated by Maya curator Diego Ventura Puac-Coyoy.
This exhibition aims to break down myths and misconceptions about the Maya, their existence, their art and their culture. By placing different artistic expressions used by contemporary Maya artists, including painting, textiles, sculpture, ceramics, jewelry, poetry and music on equal footing, we strive to tell a story that celebrate the richness of Maya art and culture while also challenging European hierarchies in art history.
Join us in a vibrant vision to grow original and groundbreaking exhibitions at the Textile Museum of Canada, launching this October 2024 with Beyond the Vanishing Maya: Voices of a Land in Resistance. You can help make possible the transformational experience and impact of stories told by Maya curators and artists through textile art and belongings.
The colonization of Guatemala by Spain in the 16th century has had lasting impacts on the Central American country, its Indigenous Maya population, and Maya art. The imposition of colonial aesthetics and ways of thinking meant that European/western art forms were upheld as the standard of beauty and sophistication, while Indigenous art created pre-European contact was devalued and marginalized. Throughout history, European art was used as a tool to reinforce colonial, white supremacist ideologies, perpetuating harmful stereotypes and erasure. Museums themselves are institutions rooted in colonialism and have commonly portrayed Indigenous peoples as the “Other” to be examined through an anthropological lens.
In this exhibition, Maya curator Diego Ventura Puac-Coyoy aims to challenge the ways the Maya have been portrayed, while also working against the devaluation of women’s work and women’s art that has been sustained throughout the history of Western art. The exhibition will also show how contemporary Maya artists continue to use pre-contact art forms to influence their work today. Diego has curated a selection of Maya art, including textiles, painting, ceramics, sculpture, music, cuisine, and jewelry, and given them equal value to challenge outdated European hierarchies of art history. These different art forms, displayed in dialogue with each other, will stand to represent the richness of Maya art and culture as one that continues to thrive in spite of colonization, genocide violence and forced assimilation.
Guest curator Diego Ventura Puac-Coyoy, supported by the curatorial team at the Textile Museum of Canada, has selected artworks by Maya contemporary artists both within and outside the Ventura Puac-Coyoy Collection, as well as textiles from the Museum’s collection. Artworks and belongings from private collections and other institutions have also been included. Visitors will see the Ventura Puac-Coyoy collection placed in dialogue with textiles, ceramics, masks, and other art forms.
Curator Bio
Diego Ventura Puac lives and works between Chichicastenango and Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. Ajq’ij, curator, and artist, he belongs to the Mayan K’iche nation. Co-founder of Espacio/C art+memory. Co-editor and curatorial assistant of the Imago-mundi Guatemala collection. Curator/committee of selection from the MARTE Museum of El Salvador auction (2016), selected along with others Central American curators for the TEOR/éTica curatorial studies program in Costa Rica (2018) and has collaborated in the production of texts for the cataloging of the auction of the MAC Panama Museum of Contemporary Art (2019 and 2020). Curator of the exhibition Before Being We Were from the Paiz Foundation, with the Ventura Puac-Coyoy Collection and the collection of the Paiz Foundation (2020). He currently works as an advisor external of the Visual Arts program of the International Baccalaureate in establishments private in Guatemala.
In 2022, with the support of TEOR/éTica (Costa Rica) and DAAD Berlin (Germany), he edited and published the book Strong Wind, which is the first volume of essays that record visions of knowledge and science of indigenous peoples expressed in art and thought. Since 2015 he has been curator of the Ventura Puac-Coyoy Collection, the first collection in the region of visual arts formed and financed by an indigenous family. He is also a member of the 2022-2023 editorial board of Terremoto magazine in Mexico. He is also the visual arts manager at the El Sótano Xela gallery and bookstore. Received the award of the Golden Button of the Municipality of Quetzaltenango as a Distinguished Citizen for his contributions to art and culture in December 2022. Received the Award from the indigenous brotherhood oldest in Quetzaltenango, the Niño del Santísimo Cultural Award in 2023. He was member of the qualifying jury of the fund and artistic residency for community projects of the New Factory, 2023 edition. In 2022 and 2023, he was part of the Indigenous Mayor’s Office of Chichicastenango as U’rox aj’ kam.
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