Sandra Monterroso
Corazón del lugar del viento (Heart of the Place of the Wind)
Sandra Monterroso’s video performance titled Corazón del lugar del viento (Heart of the Place of the Wind) is inspired by Seis Cielo (Six Sky), the only female Mayan ruler to be represented in classical Mayan stelae (historical monuments dedicated to the record of important events). As the artist impersonates the ruler and goddess, she performs a ritual of tying stones and an offering of clothing. Seis Cielo’s ties with the lineages of the prehispanic Tikal and Dos Pilas kingdoms were essential in understanding the role of Mayan women as mothers and wives, and especially as rulers and healers. Monterroso also makes references to the wind and the rituality of her spirit while she carries out a dynastic power ritual to reaffirm her own place within the Mayan tradition. For the performance, Monterroso created both the self-sacrifice basket covering her torso and the skirt in which Seis Cielo is depicted in the El Naranjo stele. The skirt is made from fabric woven by a Q’eqchi’ women’s association and later dyed with achiote and turmeric and adorned with bird bones, jade, and marble. Color is an important signifier connecting Maya Q’eqchi’s culture to Monterroso’s personal history, while naturals dyes have become ever more important in her work as she uses traditional and medicinal elements such as achiote, turmeric, indigo and cochineal not only in their ritual and symbolic dimensions, but also as straightforward artistic materials (pigments). While she performs as Seis Cielo, the artist speaks this poem written for the performance:
Aj b’e / caminante
A pusinb’il tuulak / ha sido soplado, embrujado
Awuas, Awas reek’ / Secreto para defenderse de un mal ¡B’an! /¡Cúralo!
Hulaj toosuq’iiq chaq / mañana regresamos.
Ma ¿aj celelat? / ¿Es fujitivo?
T’aenaq / caído hace tiempo
Aj xik / espía
Tuulaak, chape’k / embrujado, capturado.
Translation:
Walker
You have been blown, witched
Secret to defend from a bad ¡B’an! / ¡Heal!
Tomorrow we shall be back
¿Is it a fugitive?
Long time fallen
Spy
Witched, captured.