INGESTION. Digital archive/embodied: Uaira Uaua (Benjamín Jacanamijoy Tisoy)

Abstract

For the peoples of the Andes and the Amazonian piedmont of southwestern Colombia, ‘to walk’ | purij is a metaphor for life. Walking implies a bodily action that is in relation to the medium which one inhabits. For the oralitores and social movements of the region, “word walks” is also the way in which the idea of the minga is described (word in movement). Inga artist and researcher, Benjamin Jacanamijoy Tisoy (1965)–Uiara Uaua (son of the wind in Quechua)– is a member of a traditional family in Sibundoy (Santiago Manoy, Putamayo.) Since the early 1990’s, Uaria’s work has centered upon telling his own story, through relational practices situated within the context of his people. He tells this story in conversation with disciplines such as design, ethnography, visual art and literature.