2024 Huaca Huichaira

HUACA HUICHAIRA

When Lucio Boschi invited me to think about a project for his Museo en los Cerros, in Huichaira, Jujuy, Argentina we began to discuss many of the sensations I took away from that trip, but above all I was fascinated by the sky. There is something very sacred in that contact with the cosmos. The word that the Quechuas use to describe the sacred is Huaca.

"Machacuay" the snake that begins the path

Drawing of "Machacuay", the snake that begins the path of the dark Andean constellations in "Willa Mayu" the Milky Way, we begin in the first crawling humanity at one of the ends of the constellation we inhabit.

Detailed drawing of the constellation Chakana, the Southern Cross and Yutu, the Andean partridge that is located in the constellation known in the West as the Coal Sack. These drawings where replicated with stones at a large scale in the museum.

Llama, Baby Llama, Andean Partridge and Southern Cross

This drawing reproduces the drawing of Catuchillay, the female llama. Gary Urton, one of the first archaeoastronomers, was one of the first to find a series of petroglyphs, ceramics and textiles with images of animals projected onto the sky over the Milky Way. I love this first drawing by Urton, which is also reproduced by Leo Pucher de Kroll, because it is a very misshapen image of a llama, but in which it is very clear that those two are its eyes. Next to the llama is Uñallamacha, the baby llama. The eyes of the mother llama are two very bright and recognizable stars. They are Alpha and Beta Centauri in western nomenclature and are the two luminaries that point out the constellation of Chakana, the Southern Cross and Yutu, the Andean partridge that is located in the constellation known in the West as the Coal Sack.

The Fox

Drawing of Atok, the little fox. Although not represented in the drawing, the rock-cut fox figure is hiding under a tree, the molle. Atok represents predators with all the characteristics of a humanity with a low level of evolution, mainly sheltered by the fear of losing what it has achieved.

The Shepherd

Drawing of Micheq, the shepherd who looks after the llama so that the fox doesn't eat it. But he is also representing the human race with one arm up and the other down, connecting heaven and earth. One of the things that we have to work on spiritually as we go through this life is how to evolve from that predatory state, of territoriality, of defending our spaces out of fear, to a higher state which is that of Kuntur, the condor, which is represented enormously, behind the museum, looking after all the rest of the creatures from above.

Condor

Drawing of Kuntur, the condor that watches over and protects us all from the spiritual sky. This is the point of arrival on the path that, according to my Andean guides, we all have to take. Huaca Huichaira is an invitation to walk this path together and to reconnect with the ancestral mythologies of the Andean peoples.