Radix memoriae

2017
Object installation

This object was found in Nabusimake, an indigenous village where the Arhuaco people live, in la Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia. Arhuacos are one of the most resilient and culturally preserved indigenous communities in the world.

The strange knot of roots was on the sandy soil of the village. I had the feeling that profoundness and condensed time were coming out of it. Somehow the memories from this ancestral territory, where humans live along with other beings in harmony, were contained and materialized inside the roots.

Even before I found it, this object from the Plantae kingdom traveled a long distance in space, time, and culture. In an attempt at social and scientific de codification I decided to name it in Latin, following the method used in natural sciences but referring not to the physical qualities of the specimen, but its immaterial and intangible properties.