Eusebio Siosi

Sueños de Jepira (Dreams of Jepira)

the starting point and final resting place in their transcendence process which is part of the territory and not dissociated from it, such as in the Catholic notion of Heaven. Today, the Pilon de Azúcar hill which corresponds with Jepira is part of their reclaimed land and connects this dessert culture to the sea; it is the place the Wayuu go when they need to speak with the dead which, along with dreams, is the main way to access spiritual knowledge. In a ritualistic performative action titled Sueños de Jepira (Dreams of Jepira) artist Eusebio Siosi roams through and hikes up to the Pilón de Azúcar hill in Cabo de La Vela, Guajira. There, he blends with his territory through his bare feet, and establishes a spiritual dialogue with his great-grandmother, a spiritual leader whom he did not meet but who, being in Jepira, is available to her people for consultation. Heir to the spiritual tradition of the Wayuu (usually reserved for women), Siosi begins his journey instigated by a desire to become one with this territory and connect with his ancestors, the sound of the ever-present winds accompanying his walk. In his ascension to the top of the hill, moments of ritual, protection, and cleansing of the body succeed in the pilgrimage. Atop the Pilón de Azúcar, Siosi encounters a foreign element, a niche housing the Fatima Virgin which was forcefully installed on the hill in the twentieth century. Siosi surrounds and covers it with a sacred cloth and makes it disappear in a reckoning of cultures: imposition, domination, but also liberation. The Catholic symbol thus becomes invisible to the territory and the dream of a Jepira that belongs again to the Wayuu is fulfilled.