Javier Silva Meinel. El hombre y el mar, la raya (Lurín, Perú), 1993
12/12/2024 - 15/02/2025
Galeria Memoria
MEMORIA presents Páro Ques̈há, a dialogue between the works of Roldán Pinedo (Yarinacocha, Peru, 1971) and Javier Silva Meinel (Lima, Peru, 1949) that presents elements from the heart of the Peruvian Amazon and the Shipibo-Conibo cosmogony. In the Shipibo language, páro ques̈há means being on the riverbank, that overwhelming sensation of observing the force of the water, or the uncertainty of its depth, or the beauty of the flow that runs between colors and choreographies.
In the Shipibo-Conibo culture, drawings enshrined on objects receive a spirit and come to life, once they become connected to a cosmic language. Paintings, ceramics, clothes and textiles, canoes or houses, all objects are sacred, and their spirits look after their owners, from the moment a drawing is printed on them. The kené, complex patterns in geometric and abstract constructions refer to the skin of Ronin, the great serpent creator of the universe, and are intuited and given by deities to Shipibo women and priests during religious ceremonies with ayahuasca.
Among the two artists, Javier Silva Meinel’s photography explores the hidden contemporaneities of native Peruvian communities, highlighting the tension between reality and ancestral beliefs.