At the Gates of Paradise: Art of the Guaraní of Paraguay by IDB

At the Gates of Paradise Art of the Guaraní of Paraguay

En las puertas del paraíso El arte de los guaraníes del Paraguay September 8, 2005 to January 20, 2006 Del 8 de septiembre de 2005 al 20 de enero de 2006

The Inter-American Development Bank Enrique V. Iglesias President Dennis E. Flannery Executive Vice President João Sayad Vice President for Finance and Administration Jorge Crespo Velasco Executive Director for Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay Orlando Ferreira Caballero Alternate Execuive Director for Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay Mirna Liévano de Marques External Relations Advisor The Cultural Center Félix Angel General Coordinator and Curator Soledad Guerra Assistant General Coordinator Anne Vena Concerts and Lectures Coordinator Elba Agusti Cultural Development Program Coordinator Florencia Sader IDB Art Collection Management and Conservation Assistant

Exhibition Committee Félix Angel Curator Oscar Centurión Frontanilla Associate Curator for the exhibition

_________________________ Catalogue Designer Cecilia Peñaloza-Jacobson Photography Juan Carlos Meza, Paraguay

On the cover, clockwise from top left: Reflejos de la esencia Aché (Reflections of the Aché People), photograph by Bjarne Fostervold; Reflejos de la esencia Aché (Reflections of the Aché People), photograph by Bjarne Fostervold; and Aché Family (Familia Aché), cedar wood. On this page: Untitled, photograph by Juan Aníbal Britos Basualdo

Mirna Liévano de Marques External Relations Advisor Inter-American Development Bank, Washington, D.C.

It is a great honor for the Cultural Center of the

contribute to designing the solutions most suitable

Office of External Relations of the Inter-American

for securing a desirable future.

Development Bank to present the exhibition “At the Gates of Paradise: Art of the Guaraní of Paraguay,”

It is culture that can most subtly provide us the

as a homage by the Bank to the indigenous commu-

dimension of responsibility in this effort, especially

nities of this South American country.

when, due to the diversity of our situations, we different human groups speak different languages.

The theme and focus of this exhibition also offer an

Experts are in agreement that the Guaraní devel-

appropriate occasion for the Cultural Center to pay

oped a culture based on the spoken word rather

tribute and express its deep gratitude to the Presi-

than on visual representation, and so some who are

dent of the IDB, Enrique V. Iglesias, who 13 years

accustomed to a certain visual artistic tradition may

ago conceived the idea of creating the Center amid

be at a loss to interpret Guaraní thought and feeling.

widespread skepticism. The IDB does not look on difficulties of this kind In this Introduction I am not going to recite the

as problems but as opportunities. It thus seeks to

many achievements of the Cultural Center, because

understand not only the needs, but also the aspira-

these speak for themselves from the pages of this

tions of communities and their differences. The

catalog, thereby confirming just how right President

challenge must be not to eliminate such differences

Iglesias was when he decided that culture ought to

but to resolve them, as the Brazilian artist Gilberto

be included in the process of development.

Gil noted some time ago here at the Bank. Thus it will be easier to make progress because such a focus

Exploring Guaraní culture (or the portion of it that

reflects the concern for responding in a manner that

still reaches us) is a necessary and salutary exercise

is appropriate and suited to all.

because it helps us understand the cultural differences that affect the perception of reality that de-

It is not just some of us but all of us who must learn

termines–both in the Guaraní and in ourselves–not

to live in harmony with others, with nature, and

only our vision of the past, but also our image and

with the customs of others in order to make material

expectations of the future.

progress and prevent our differences from interfering with the common good. That is how we will

That perception, like so many others in the

reach this “land without evil” that the Guaraní have

Americas, is important for the IDB inasmuch as its

always sought to protect, which all of us very much

mission is to contribute to the economic and social

need to discover and for which President Iglesias has

development of the communities of the region. The

labored in imagining and in building.

vision of the future is not one-dimensional, but the result of the confluence of many perceptions that

Mirna Liévano de Marques Asesora de Relaciones Externas Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo, Washington, D.C.

Para el Centro Cultural de la Oficina de Relaciones

tribuyen a diseñar las soluciones más indicadas para

Externas del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo

alcanzar un futuro favorable.

constituye un gran honor presentar la exposición “En las puertas del paraíso: el arte de los guaraníes

La cultura es lo que con más sutileza puede darnos

del Paraguay”, como un homenaje del Banco a las

la dimensión de responsabilidad en este esfuerzo,

comunidades indígenas de este país sudamericano.

sobre todo cuando por la misma diversidad de realidades los distintos grupos humanos hablamos len-

El tema y el enfoque de la exposición resultan

guajes diferentes. Los expertos coinciden en afirmar

además apropiados para que el Centro Cultural le

que los guaraníes desarrollaron una cultura basada

brinde un tributo de reconocimiento y su profundo

en la palabra y no en la representación; por eso al-

agradecimiento al Presidente del BID, Enrique V.

gunos de nosotros, acostumbrados a cierta tradición

Iglesias, quien hace 13 años concibió la creación del

artística visual, no contamos con las referencias para

Centro en medio de un escepticismo generalizado.

interpretar el pensamiento y el sentir guaraníes.

No voy a repetir en esta introducción los logros

El BID no asume este tipo de dificultades como

alcanzados por el Centro Cultural, puesto que ellos

problemas sino como oportunidades. De esta

hablan por sí mismos desde las páginas de este

manera, procura entender no sólo las necesidades

catálogo y así permiten comprobar cuán acertado

sino las aspiraciones de las comunidades y también

estaba el Presidente cuando decidió que había que

sus diferencias, a las que se esfuerza por resolver en

vincular la cultura a los procesos de desarrollo.

vez de eliminar, como señalara acertadamente hace un tiempo en este mismo Banco el artista brasileño

Explorar la cultura guaraní, o al menos lo que

Gilberto Gil. Así, será más factible progresar porque

todavía nos llega de ella, es un ejercicio saludable y

tal enfoque refleja la preocupación de responder en

necesario, por cuanto nos ayuda a entender las dife-

forma apropiada y conveniente para todos.

rencias culturales que inciden en la percepción de la realidad que determina —tanto en los guaraníes

Somos todos y no sólo algunos los que debemos

como en nosotros– la visión del pasado, pero tam-

aprender a vivir en armonía con los demás, con la

bién la imagen y las expectativas del futuro.

naturaleza, con las costumbres de los otros, para progresar materialmente e impedir que nuestras

Dicha percepción, como tantas otras que existen en

diferencias interfieran en el bien colectivo. Así

nuestra América, es importante para el BID por cu-

lograremos llegar a esa “tierra sin mal” que los

anto su misión es contribuir al desarrollo económico

guaraníes siempre han protegido, que todos ur-

y social de las comunidades de la Región. La visión

gentemente necesitamos descubrir, y por la cual el

del futuro no es, pues, unilateral, sino el resultado

Presidente Iglesias ha trabajado tanto en imaginar y

de la confluencia de muchas percepciones que con-

construir.

At the Gates of Paradise: Art of the Guaraní of Paraguay

The Land Th L d without it ith th t E Evil il iis still till a lland. d H Hence itt iis nott a paradise di th thatt will ill be found later, in another life. When the Guaraní mythically project this land, they do not see it as an Eden. They always see it as a land in this life. It is a land that is not up above but within the horizontal dimension. This is very important because we are beginning to dialogue with a conception that is beyond other conceptions. Inasmuch as it is Earth, it tends to be good. The Guaraní have an aesthetic view of Earth. For the Guaraní, the Earth is a beautiful body on which trees are like long hair, the skin is sometimes shining, sparkling, and manifestations of soil erosion are diseases. This is within the conception that we call mythic, but for them it is a very real conception. Rev. Bartomeu Melià J.P.

Utopia Already Happened in Paraguay Rev. Bartomeu MeliĂ J.P. The Garden of Divine Abundance and the Paradise of Mohammad, which the Spanish reached around 1537, was named Paraguay. Less than a century after the arrival of the conquerors, it had been turned into a solitary field and hill of sorrow, whose saddest and bitterest fruit was the death of the native peoples (and Spaniards as well). Epidemics, wars, and abuse, as recorded by a chronicler of that time, had caused a demographic collapse after which only a fourth of the indigenous people who used to live there remained. In the early seventeenth century, Philip III was on the Spanish throne, and yet the splendor of literature and the arts could not hold back the collapse of a country that expected more from conquest, war, and plunder than from what the countryside produced and what was earned by industry. It is true that serious lucid and concrete political and theological critiques were raised at this time of crisis. At the forefront were the university professors of theology and philosophy Francisco de Vitoria and Domingo de Soto, who were able to lay out the broad lines of the rights of indigenous peoples, thereby building the foundation for the future international law of peoples. It was also a time of utopias. Part I of Cervantesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Don Quixote appeared in Madrid in 1605, and Part II of the adventures of the same imaginative gentleman appeared in 1615.

Fish (Pez) Wood and phyroengraving

Colonial Paraguay

Apyká Taguá (Three Chairs in the Shape of a Tapir) Wood and phyroengraving

Drum (Tambor de Vacapi) Wood, cowhide and willow

Reﬂejos de la esencia Aché (Reﬂections of the Aché People) Photograph by Bjarne Fostervold

As a colony of Spain, Paraguay saw the launching of a missionary experiment that would soon achieve the fame of being “a utopia with a place”—terms that are logically contradictory. This utopia was invented in a wellthought-out act of governance, in the Instructions issued by Father Diego de Torres Bollo, the first Provincial of the Society of Jesus in Paraguay. The Instructions were addressed to the first Jesuits entering the jungles where the Spaniards had barely penetrated to do missionary work among the Guaraní. The 1609 Instructions, recorded by the priest-historian Pedro Lozano in his Historia de la Compañía de Jesús en la Provincia del Paraguay (t. II, Madrid 1755:136-41 and 248-52) serve not only as tools for a politically and socially well-planned action, but also embody the spirituality of St. Ignatius Loyola, for whom “non coerceri maximo, contineri tamen minimo, divinum est” [to not be enclosed in the maximum and to fit within the minimum are divine]. To contemplate the galaxy and inspect the atom is to invent the divine utopia. Diego de Torres trusted in this imagination which becomes a cause. Imaginatio facit causam was a saying at the time. However, not all the imaginary worlds that sprang from the pens of writers took on their own

life. Not everything with a head has feet. Furthermore, the utopias that have swirled around the world of pulpits and books rarely land on the ground and nowhere do they find their place. They move about in the head—in the heads of those who created them—but they do not really have feet. Actually, neither feet nor head. No utopia begins as a utopia. It is more likely to begin as a critique of the wrongs and injustices of the present and a means for getting out of an intolerable and unsustainable situation of injustice and injury.

No como y doy de comer; I don’t eat yet I feed others, No visto y doy de vestir; Lack clothes yet clothe others, Soy libre y he de servir; Am free but must also serve. Esto ¿cómo puede ser? How can this be? This verse from that age collected by Pedro Lozano (op. cit. II:289) reflects the situation of oppression affecting the indigenous people in the colonized regions. But the Jesuits were not to limit themselves to complaints and cries of protest. Rather they directed their efforts toward the new. And what was newest were the lands where there were no Spaniards.

The Guaraní as Subjects It cannot be ignored that the Catholic missions brought by the Spaniards sought to bring about changes and conversions and were also to some extent a kind of colonialism of a religious nature. These missions were perhaps the most radical and purest enterprises, which, by spreading Christianity, sought to extend Spain’s values throughout the world. The missions exhibited what was purest and most attractive about Spain’s Indian policy. Indeed at no time did the Jesuit missions come into conflict with Spanish legislation or with its institutions. When they were accused of promoting linguistic practices that ignored Spanish, of not paying the taxes owed, or even of being a state within the state, the Jesuits showed that it was precisely they, like few others in the colony, who adhered to the law and observed it fully. Such excessive observance in the Spain of that time was in itself a utopia.

Figure of Saint or Virgin Carved and polychromed wood 19th century

It was the utopia of standing up (and being able to stand up) to the practices of Spanish and native-born settlers who repeatedly and in different ways violated that very colonial order. Even today in most countries it would be utopian for society and government to fully observe the provisions of their national constitution. The Instructions given by Father Torres respected the law and took the law as the model of political life; they mistrusted the Spaniards, but trusted the indigenous people. Out of fidelity to the gospel they preached, the Jesuits, especially at the outset, gave a large vote of confidence to the tradition of the indigenous who were assumed to love themselves and their people. Those who love their land do not destroy it. In late 1609 beyond the Tyvykuary River, the first “reduction” was started. It was named after Saint Ignatius, and later known as Guasú (the great) to distinguish it from San Ignacio Miní, the smaller one in the Guairá region. It was the beginning of a new history, which was to be

Virgin of the Candlemas (Virgen de la Candelaria) Carved and polychromed wood Second half of the 18th century-ﬁrst half of the 19th century

characterized by a new paradigm in terms of the relationship between the Guaraní and Jesuit missionaries, such as had not existed previously and would not exist in subsequent years. The method of “mission by reduction” was practiced in some fashion elsewhere in the Americas, including in Paraguay, by other missionaries, such as the Franciscans, but the Jesuit model had unmistakable features. This modestly and calmly begun experiment had a deep impact on the exploitative relations of the landgrant-holding Spaniards toward the indigenous people in “this disguised captivity,” and it stood up to the enslaving designs of the plundering “bandeirantes” from São Paulo, Brazil. The tension between both sides, on the right and the left, would continue for years and years. From early colonial times the Spaniards had “de-nativized” many indigenous people, who had to serve in the landholders’ fields and workplaces; with the bandeirantes, the indigenous people were seized away from their lands and enslaved in the sugar mills of Rio de Janeiro.

The Lord of the Palms Carved and polychromed wood 19th century

With the Jesuits, the Guaraní stayed on their lands and remained in their own territory, which kept its compact unity. Although Christianity led them to adopt new and strange forms of religious life that were unquestionably colonial in nature, the replacement was largely mitigated by the persistence of a strong, scarcely changed cultural core. The Guaraní preserved their language, and within the settlements the economy continued to be based on exchange of gifts without the introduction of marketing. The labor system combined community and individuality, and the sociopolitical organization of the leadership of the chief was retained. Indeed, the Guaraní did not have to learn much from the Jesuits, perhaps merely to do better what they already knew how to do. The towns lived primarily from farming corn, manioc, cotton, and over time, cultivated mate, augmented by raising and selling cattle and horses. Hunting and gathering did not completely disappear. In the Jesuit missions the indigenous people still felt like Guaraní.

Saint Rosa of Lima Carved and polychromed wood 19th century

Figure of Saint or Virgin Carved and polychromed wood 19th century

Reﬂejos de la esencia Aché (Reﬂections of the Aché People) Photograph by Bjarne Fostervold

Spiritual Conquest

Coffer Wood inlaid with river mother-of-pearl

Trunk Wood and inlaid wood with naturalistic and zoomorphic designs 18th century

When Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, en route to Madrid, was writing La conquista espiritual (Madrid, 1639, Cap. XLV; published by Ernesto J. A. Maeder. Rosario, 1989, pp. 195 ff.), a chronicle and argument on behalf of the missionary practice of the “reductions,” he was already able to present a sketch of a pragmatic utopia with feet on the ground in Paraguay. What constituted the utopia presented by Montoya in the court of Madrid to royal advisors, ladies of the aristocracy, church people, and anyone else who could read? The idea of utopia may come from an ideological mirage, for that same missionary thought that what was remarkable was not only the high degree of civilization and humanity attained, but also the fact that this had been attained with a people like the Guaraní. Until recently they had been practicing cannibalism, going about naked, and were nomads full of vices. The utopia in this instance is that a people could have leaped such a great distance in so short a time. “It is the power of the Gospel that I seek to explain,” says Montoya. “Its efficacy can be seen in making lions meek, domesticating tigers, and

turning wild beasts into human beings and even angels.” “They are all farmers and each has his separate plot, and when they reach the age of eleven, the boys have their own plot, and they aid one another very agreeably; they do not buy or sell, because with generosity and no self-interest, they aid one another in their needs ... they live in peace with no disputes.” It should be kept in mind that farming and the economic system that anthropologists now call reciprocity were in fact the legacy of the Guaraní: everything is given away, nothing is sold. Generosity is the source of prestige for the one who gives and does not need to receive.

Absence of Spaniards The great progress in arts and other occupations and the flowering of music likewise seemed utopian. “They are very skilled in things mechanical; there are very good carpenters, smiths, tailors, weavers, and shoemakers, and while they had none of this before, through the diligence of the priests they have become masters, and remarkably so in the easy cultivation of the land with a plow; they are wonderfully devoted to music which

the priests teach the sons of chiefs, and to read and write; they celebrate masses with an array of music, with two or three choruses; they put serious effort into playing instruments, bassoons, cornets, oboes, harps, zithers, guitars, lutes, clarinets and other instruments.” Thus was born this “musical republic,” idyllically represented by missionaries who enchanted the native people as they passed through rivers and forests. Montoya was to say: “They make up a very good political republic. What more can be asked?” But it was especially utopian that within the realms of the king of Spain, paradoxically, the laws of the Spanish Crown should be observed, although for that to happen the Jesuit experiment had to be able to develop without Spaniards. “Spaniards have not entered that land because it has been conquered by the Gospel alone, and because our desire has been that Your Majesty protect these indigenous people... I confess that my aim is that the indigenous people not perform personal

service...; my desire is that they pay Your Majesty such tribute as their poverty allows them.” For Montoya the missions also meant freeing the indigenous people from that “diabolical personal service” into which the landholders wanted to place them. Utopia consisted of attaining it.

The Location of Utopia The utopian vision was common among the Jesuits, who maintained it over and over in their different writings, whether in letters, chronicles of the time, or histories. In 1793 Father José Manuel Peramás, one of the Jesuits expelled from the missions in Paraguay in 1767, compared the Guaraní to Plato’s Republic, as may be read in the recent work, Platón y los guaraníes (Asunción, Paraguay: CEPAG, 2004). But the experiment went well beyond the circle of friends and admirers of the Jesuits. In 1752 Ludovico Muratori, not a Jesuit, wrote Il cristianesimo felice and Voltaire asserted that such missions represented “le triomphe de l’humanité”.

Above: Paí Tavytera Altar Wood, gourds, sticks and rope 20th century Below: Reﬂejos de la esencia Aché (Reﬂections of the Aché People) Photograph by Bjarne Fostervold

The Guaraní World –

“The Past in the Present” Margarita Miró Ibars While Guaraní culture did not leave material monuments, its great contribution to humanity lies in its worldview, wisdom and treatment of the environment, at the transcendence of human beings and their unity with the spiritual and the natural. It was a perfect trinity for achieving psychosocial, spiritual and natural equilibrium, a vision that is now becoming more operational and fostering the conservation of planet Earth. What support does Guaraní culture offer us today, with its wooden crosses as we move into the Third Millennium? The wooden crosses, the (pre-Hispanic) flowering cross of Ñanderuvusú (Eternal God), bearer of mbaekua´a (wisdom), symbolizes the union of the human being with the divine, a reminder that they are on the same horizontal plane as other human beings and the other elements of nature.

Apyka Jejuhu (Encounter of Seats) by Lucy Yegros (M. M. Luciana Yegros) Mixed media on wood 1987

Reﬂejos de la esencia Aché (Reﬂections of the Aché People) Photograph by Bjarne Fostervold

Thanks to the circulation of information and to popular wisdom, we are able to learn about, evaluate, and appreciate the ideas that reigned in past decades. We can rightly say that Guaraní culture always had universal principles that contributed to the balance of human nature and the world. The Guaraní recognized the value of “being” (tekoete), of human beings in their plenitude, masters of themselves, true “being” with powers over themselves, over nature, over the transcendental, with personal and community self-esteem: “I have worth,” “I am,” “I can.” If I feel incapable, impotent, imperfect, how can I build or generate a just, equitable, or harmonious society? There are millennia-old words that today have become emblems for building a more just and equitable society: tekó jojá (equity, which is not the same thing as equality, for many things may not be equal, because creation, the origin of the genesis, made them different); ñemongueta (dialogue); and jekupyty (consensus). Getting a simple majority by vote is not the same as assuming a responsibility or moving in a direction through consensus reached by deliberation. Volunteer work, so heralded and exalted by society, which obliges us to turn it into an ongoing mechanism for solving the conflicts created by extreme individualism, was already well established in the ojopói.

Winged Face Mask (Agüero-Güero Chova Pepo) Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní) 1990

Winged Face Mask (Agüero-Güero Chova Pepo) Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní) 1989

In nature woman and man were not superior or inferior to one another; they were simply different and complemented one another, each in his or her role. Woman had her space, her intimacy, her governance, and her knowledge. Woman was, and still is in surviving Guaraní communities, the “oga jara” or mistress of the home, of everything having to do with managing family goods; she is not servija or servant, subject to the man, a sexual slave, incapable of managing property (ideas introduced by the conqueror). Catholicism quickly interpreted the search for the Land without Evil (yvy maraey) as the search for paradise after death. But today, with the contributions of science and sustainable development, it can be said that the Guaraní lived in an earthly paradise, on an earth flowing all year long with honey, water, fruits, and food. The forested area of the habitat of the Guaraní community, from the Caribbean, passing by way of the Amazon and the territories of the Paraná and Paraguay Rivers, has an extremely bountiful nature that human beings pollute, impoverish and destroy, by taking everything from it and giving nothing back.

When human beings occupy a territory, they pollute it, waste it, and debilitate the earth; natural resources are exhausted, undermining the balance of body and spirit. When they observed this natural wear and tear, the Guaraní made periodic cyclical migrations to give nature time to recover. That enabled them to reverse the destructive behavior of human beings so that subsequent generations could continue to enjoy the same earthly paradise. The Guaraní did not have temples of stone; their temple was nature. For the Guaraní community, the earth was sacred and is sacred; it is the mother of all. Hence to this day their descendants in their opy, or house of devotion, keep the earthen floor or foundation and they pray barefoot. Guaraní knowledge of human nature and of the use of plants (ethnomedicine and ethnobotany) have been confirmed by the sophisticated science of our own day. We should also mention the treasures of the Guaraní language; onomatopoetic, syncretic, sonorous, synthetic and profound, foreigners appreciate it, but it also remains strongly intertwined with the everyday life of contemporary Paraguayans.

Styles of Guaraní Indigenous Art Ticio Escobar (adapted and summarized by Félix Angel)

An initial criterion that can be adopted for differentiating the various indigenous peoples living in Paraguay is based on their patterns of subsistence. The different ethnic groups may thus be classified into two cultural systems depending on whether they are hunter-gatherers or farmers. Included in the first group are communities belonging to the Zamuco, Mataco, Guaykurú and Maskoy linguistic families located in the Gran Chaco (Western part of Paraguay), while the second group comprises those living in the Eastern part of the country. This classification, made for illustrative purposes, is a rough approximation whose sole aim is to locate quickly the ethnic groups in order to understand better the art that they produce.

Colibri´s Head (Agüero-Ndechi Maino) Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní) 1990

F Flute (Mimby) Chiriguano ethnic group C ((Tupi Guaraní) 11989

Tucan’s Head (Agüero-Ndechi Tukä) Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní) 1992

The system of hunting and gathering and the nomadic ethos connected to it provide the basis for a flexible cultural framework for incorporating things and making various adaptations. Guaraní farming culture, being dependent on the cycles of nature, is more conservative and closed to innovations. These factors played an important role at the time of colonial transculturation and leave a strong imprint on the symbolic production of different indigenous societies, thereby making it possible to identify among them common features and differences. Both hunting and farming societies are structured around a ritual mythic core that combines the functions of power, legal order, leisure, beauty, and religion. Hence the basic forms of visual manifestations are involved with ritual and tribal self-identification. Those forms start with the human body, the favored foundation of indigenous expression:

Accessory Ao Ñe´é (The Lenguage of Clothes) by Marité Zaldívar (María Teresa Carolina Zaldívar Rolón) 2002

ornamentation with feathers, tattooing and body paint among the people of the Chaco and feather art are basic archetypes among the Guaraní. Indeed, ritual celebration is in itself a total work of art that integrates communal creation. Another great focus of aesthetic creation has its origins in economic production. The works linked to subsistence require forms rooted in the collective, such as Guaraní basketwork and the caraguatá weavings of the Chaco people. In their interconnection with ritual and economic production, such forms are repositories of profound story lines found within each ethnic group. That is why they tend to be stable throughout history. Even hunting cultures maintain a certain symbolic reserve that serves as a compass during processes of change. Although new signs are incorporated and techniques are renewed, the ancient pattern of the ritual is preserved. Although the peripheral forms draw stylistic nourishment from sources stronger than themselves, they have fewer expressive responsibilities and they may surrender to the attractiveness or imposition of new techniques. The adaptation of glass beads and wool weaving motifs of the Chaco people, the ceramic ornamentation of the Chiriguano and Caduces, the zoomorphic carving of Chiripá or Manjui, and the basketwork of

the Chamacoco, for example, involve hybridizing processes that resulted in opening up new possibilities for expression. With the foregoing in mind, basically three groups of Guaraní aesthetics may be distinguished.

Classic Guaraní Ascetic and strict, driven obsessively by the inner life and the search for the fullness of human experience, the Guaraní developed a sober and austere aesthetic. Their ornamental signs take the form of concise solutions, their designs seek synthesis, their decorations are essential and their choreography is precise. This laconic quality affects both basic and peripheral forms. Although documentation is rather scant, it could be assumed that ancient Guaraní feather art was exuberant and was gradually purged starting in the colonial era. The sumptuous feather capes, crowns and napeguards became simplified, and their bare appearance today expresses the retreat of a culture under attack and ecological plunder. Extravagant body painting has been cut back to minimal facial markings. Today, for example, the Mbyá highlight the enigma of their identity with small dark angles and curves that concentrate on their face the almost-lost scripture of their ethnicity.

The Chaco Guaraní The Chiriguanos, commonly known as Guarayos but who call themselves Avá or Mbyá, are descendants of Tupí Guaraní groups, which, in the era just before the Spanish conquest, emigrated to the Western region because of war, religious ideals, political reasons, and economic pressures. The Chiriguanos made an enormous effort to re-adapt to the sub-Andean environment and reformulate their Guaraní affirmation. Hence Chiriguano art must be regarded as an atypical case among the Guaraní. Its forms are based on hybrids and reduplication.

Guaraní Related Regarded as belonging to the Guaraní language family, the Aché develop their own aesthetic which expresses their many sociocultural differences as a hunter-gatherer group. Their aesthetic sensitivity is obscure and aggressive, and has nothing to do with the delicate harmony and subtlety of the Guaraní. Their colors are dry and somber. They are the only ethnic group that does not use primary colors but tends toward blacks, grays, and gray-browns. Their symbols are sharp and driven by a barbaric expressiveness, propelled by gloomy poetics manifested in a contempt for delicacy and a preference for the rough and the harsh. The realm of the Aché is a rugged world that contrasts sharply with the serene sweetness of their songs and the warmth and smiles of its inhabitants.

____________________________________ Source: “La Belleza de los Otros - Arte Indígena del Paraguay”. 1993. Centro de Documentación e Investigaciones de Arte Popular e Indígena del Centro de Artes Visuales, RP Ediciones. Asunción, Paraguay.

Reﬂejos de la esencia Aché (Reﬂections of the Aché People) Photograph by Bjarne Fostervold

Curricula Vitae

Bartomeu Melià i Lliteres Jesuit priest, born in Porreres (Baleares), Spain, December 7, 1932. Came to Paraguay in 1954, where he has studied Guaraní culture in terms of anthropology, linguistics, and philosophy. He is a member of the Société des Américanistes de París (1968), the National Commission on Bilingualism of the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Paraguay (1994), and the Paraguayan Academy of the Spanish Language; correspondent of the Real Academia Española, the Paraguayan Academy of History (2004) and the Royal Academy of History of Madrid; and the Director of the Department of Language and Culture of the “Antonio Guasch” Center for Paraguayan Studies. His works include Historia de la lengua guaraní (Ed. Mafre, Barcelona, España), El guaraní conquistado y reducido: ensayos de etnohistoria (Asunción Paraguay: Biblioteca Paraguaya de Antropología del Centro de Estudios Antropológicos de la Universidad Católica de Asunción, 1986), Guaraníes y jesuitas en tiempo de las misiones: una bibliografía didáctica (Asunción, Paraguay: CEPAG, 1995). He is regarded as one of the great scholars of Guaraní culture, alongside León Cadogan, Egon Schaden and Kurt Nimuendajú Unkel.

Margarita Miró Ibars

Ticio Escobar

Born in Asunción, Paraguay, in 1952. Graduated from the Department of Philosophy of the Universidad Nacional de Asunción with a degree in history. Since 1983 she has been living in Carapeguá, where she began doing research on matters related to national identity and traditional culture. She has been General Director of Research and Cultural Support of the Office of the Vice-Minister of Culture, and has taken part in interinstitutional projects, including the Guaraní World Sustainable Development Program, begun in 2004 and coordinated by the Ministry of Foreign Relations of the Republic of Paraguay with financial support from the IDB ; and the Voice for the Voiceless, begun in 2005 under UNESCO sponsorship to safeguard musical genres and dances of endangered minorities. Her works include Karu Reko: antropología culinaria paraguaya (Asunción, Paraguay: Servilibro, 2004); Formación natural y social del entorno de los humedales del Ypoá y Carapeguá (Asunción, Paraguay: Servilibro, 2002); Mujeres que tejen arte: origen y sentido de la artesanía carapegüeña (Carapeguá, Paraguay, 2002); Alimentación y religiosidad paraguaya: chipa pan sagrado (Asunción, Paraguay: Servililbro, 2001); and Tembí¨u Rehegua:- reivindicación de la cultura culinaria guaraní y paraguaya (Carapeguá, Paraguay: Editorial Salesiana, 1995).

Born in Asunción, Paraguay, in 1947. He is a lawyer and doctor in philosophy, art critic, and cultural administrator, as well as founder and director of the Museum of Indigenous Art of Paraguay (1993-2005) and former Director of Culture of the Office of the Mayor of the City of Asuncion. He works with Teixeira (BR) in assessments and proposals for fostering cultural development in Latin America. He is a founding member of the Commission on Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples and is affiliated with a variety of institutions dealing with national and Latin American culture. He has directed in Paraguay, similar to Mato in Caracas (VE), the Identities in Transit Project, sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation. He has received a number of awards, including the distinction of Latin American Critic of the Year, given in 1985 by the Argentine Section of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA); the Prince Klaus Prize of Holland for his research, theoretical corpus, and essays on indigenous art; and the Urban Hero Prize of the Prince Klaus Foundation. His works include La belleza de los otros: arte indígena del Paraguay (Asunción Paraguay: RP Ediciones, 1993), and La maldición de Nemur: acerca del arte, el mito y el ritual de los indígenas ishir del Gran Chaco paraguayo (Asunción, Paraguay: Centro de Artes Visuales–Museo del Barro, 1999).

President Enrique V. Iglesias and the Cultural Center of the Inter-American Development Bank Félix Ángel, General Coordinator and Curator IDB Cultural Center, Washington, D.C.

n 1992, on the occasion of the Quincentennial Commemoration of the Encounter of Two Worlds, IDB President Enrique V. Iglesias created the Cultural Center as a concrete expression of the Bank’s commitment to the economic and social development of Latin America and the Caribbean. From the outset the Center’s mission was to advance the concept both within the Bank and elsewhere that culture is a component of development. Accordingly, it was necessary to incorporate that concept into the institutional mindset, which would eventually lead to expanding the Bank’s portfolio to include culture, traditionally regarded as a subsidiary social area not suited for receiving funding, despite its importance in the history of the region and the prestige it has acquired over other sectors in the region more favored with international assistance. The Center was also intended to promote a broader image of Latin America, particularly in the city of Washington, D.C. Acknowledgment of the accomplishments of professionals working the field of the culture and the potential of culture as a source of progress and social cohesion seemed to President Iglesias to be matters that could not be ignored or left undeveloped. Culture has always been able to rise above the economic, political and social problems of the region. Through its culture the region has been endowed with valuable resources, ranging from spectacular archaeological sites to internationally renowned literary works. The Cultural Center was assigned to the IDB’s Office of the Advisor of External Relations. From the outset, President Iglesias made it clear that the aim of this initiative was not to use culture like “a flower in the lapel,” as he himself put it. The Center has been shaped by three major programs: The Cultural Development Program (CDP), the Exhibitions, and the Concerts and Lectures Series. The CDP co-finances as much as two-thirds of small grants

for cultural projects with significant social and economic impact on communities in Latin America and the Caribbean. Thus far the CDP has co-financed over 300 projects in all the Bank’s borrower countries, with an investment of nearly $1.7 million, which has helped mobilize more than $3.5 million from other sources, directly benefiting nearly 60,000 individuals and indirectly more than 200,000. IDB Photo Unit The other two programs—the Exhibitions and the Concerts and Lectures Series— were set up at the Bank’s headquarters in order to establish a venue from which to project to the United States and the world the most outstanding cultural manifestations of the IDB member countries, with emphasis on Latin America and the Caribbean. The Exhibitions include a variety of subjects such as visual arts, folk art, crafts, folklore, ethnography, anthropology, and history, all revolving around themes that examine the sociocultural realm as the context of other political, economic, and social aspects. This approach has enabled the Cultural Center to establish its own niche in Washington, D.C., and to secure in the region its own identity closely linked to the IDB. The Center has thus far organized and presented 54 exhibitions—four per year—with the participation of the most prestigious public and private institutions of Latin America and the Caribbean. The Concerts Series gives priority to young people from the region who otherwise would be unlikely to have the chance to display their talents internationally. The Center serves as a venue for well-known artists in the world of music and lyric theater. The Lectures Series offers the opportunity to learn about the thinking of intellectuals, writers, and leading figures from political, social, and economic life.

Enrique V. Iglesias, President of the IDB with the Mayor of Lima, Luis Castañeda Lossio, at the IDB Cultural Center Art Gallery.

It serves as an open forum for discussing the latest ideas in the public square as countries continually undergo change. The Cultural Center also administers the IDB Art Collection, a selection of over 1,700 art works representing all the Bank’s member countries. It frequently responds to requests to lend its works for exhibition in museums and accredited university galleries in the United States and the region. It also has a small Fund for Local Contributions, with emphasis on those who serve communities with ties to the region, for strengthening its presence in Washington and for demonstrating unequivocally its institutional responsibility. This important initiative of President Iglesias, the Cultural Center, has clearly helped position the IDB as unquestionably the region’s leading development institution, understood in both its material and spiritual dimensions. In the words of Ambassador Paolo Faiola, the current General Secretary of the Instituto Italo-Latinoamericano in Rome, the Cultural Center is now recognized both in the region and elsewhere as one of the most signiﬁcant achievements of President Iglesias during his 17 years of exemplary and fruitful leadership at the helm of the IDB.

El Presidente Enrique V. Iglesias y el Centro Cultural del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo Félix Ángel, Coordinador General y Curador, Centro Cultural del BID, Washington, D.C.

El reconocimiento de los logros alcanzados por quienes trabajan en el sector cultural y su potencial como fuente de progreso y cohesión social le parecían al Presidente Iglesias asuntos que no podían ignorarse, ni mucho menos desaprovecharse. Sobran pruebas de que la cultura siempre ha logrado sobreponerse a los problemas económicos, sociales y políticos de la Región, logrando asimismo beneficiarla con valiosos recursos que van desde maravillosos sitios arqueológicos hasta obras literarias de prestigio internacional. El Centro Cultural fue encomendado a la Asesoría de Relaciones Externas. De entrada, el Presidente Iglesias dejó en claro que no se trataba de una iniciativa que pretendía utilizar la cultura “como una flor en la solapa”, según sus propias palabras. El Centro ha estado conformado por tres grandes programas: el Programa de Desarrollo Cultural (PDC); las Exposiciones, y los Conciertos y Conferencias. El PDC cofinancia hasta

y presentado 54 exposiciones —cuatro por año— con la participación de las instituciones públicas y privadas más prestigiosas de la Región.

dos tercios del costo de microproyectos culturales con un impacto social importante en distintas comunidades de América Latina y el Caribe. Hasta la fecha, el PDC ha coﬁnanciado más de 300 proyectos en todos los países prestatarios del Banco con una inversión cercana a US$ 1.700.000, los cuales han contribuido a movilizar más de US$ 3.500.000 provenientes de otras fuentes, beneﬁciando directamente a cerca de 60.000 personas e indirectamente a más de 200.000.

Los Conciertos y Conferencias, por su parte, dan prioridad a jóvenes de la Región que de otro modo difícilmente tendrían oportunidad de demostrar sus talentos en la escena internacional. Asimismo, el Centro sirve de escenario a artistas ampliamente reconocidos en el mundo de la música y el teatro lírico. Las conferencias dan la oportunidad de escuchar el pensamiento de intelectuales, hombres de letras y personajes de la vida política, social y económica, sirviendo como un foro abierto de discusión de las ideas más interesantes que van ocupando lugar dentro de la continua transformación de los países.

IDB Photo Unit

n 1992, en ocasión de la celebración del Quinto Centenario del Encuentro de Dos Mundos, el Presidente del BID Enrique V. Iglesias creó el Centro Cultural como otra expresión concreta del compromiso del Banco con el desarrollo económico y social de América Latina y el Caribe. Desde el comienzo, la misión del Centro se orientó a introducir dentro y fuera del Banco el concepto de que la cultura forma parte del desarrollo. Había la necesidad de incorporar dicho concepto en la mentalidad institucional, lo cual eventualmente llevaría a expandir la cartera del Banco para incluir la cultura, considerada tradicionalmente un subsector social inhabilitado para recibir recursos, no obstante su importante papel en la historia de la Región y el prestigio que le ha dado por encima de otras áreas más favorecidas con la ayuda internacional. El Centro estaba llamado, además, a promover una imagen más amplia de la Región, en particular en la ciudad de Washington, D.C.

Enrique V. Iglesias, Presidente del BID. Los otros dos programas —Exposiciones, y Conciertos, y Conferencias— se pusieron en marcha para la Sede, con el ﬁn de establecer una ventana desde donde proyectar hacia Estados Unidos y el mundo las manifestaciones culturales más sobresalientes de los países miembros del BID, con énfasis en América Latina y el Caribe. Las Exposiciones incluyen una variedad de temas como artes visuales, arte popular, artesanía, folclor, etnografía, antropología e historia, girando alrededor de temas que analizan lo sociocultural como contexto de otros aspectos políticos, económicos y sociales. Este enfoque le ha permitido al Centro Cultural establecer su propio nicho en Washington, D.C., y aﬁanzar en la Región una personalidad propia ligada cercanamente con el BID. Hasta la fecha el Centro ha organizado

El Centro Cultural también administra la Colección de Arte del BID, una selección que sobrepasa las 1.700 piezas y representa a todos los países miembros del Banco. Con frecuencia, responde a solicitudes de préstamo de obras para ser presentadas en museos y galerías universitarias acreditadas de los Estados Unidos y la Región. Dispone asimismo de un pequeño Fondo para Contribuciones Locales, con énfasis en aquéllas que sirven a comunidades con vínculos en la Región, destinado a reforzar su presencia en la ciudad y dar evidencia inequívoca de su responsabilidad institucional. Sin dudas, esta importante iniciativa del Presidente Iglesias, el Centro Cultural, ha contribuido a posicionar al BID como institución líder indiscutible del desarrollo de la Región, entendiéndolo en sus dimensiones material y espiritual. En palabras del Embajador Paolo Faiola, actual Secretario General del Istituto Italo-Latinoamericano en Roma, el Centro Cultural ya es reconocido, tanto en la Región como fuera de ella, como uno de los logros más signiﬁcativos del Presidente Iglesias durante su ejemplar y fructífero liderazgo al frente del BID durante 17 años.

En las puertas del paraíso: el arte de los guaraníes del Paraguay

Jaguar´s Head (Agüero-Ndechi Jagua-Jagua) Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní) 1989

La tierra sin mal es una tierra. Por tanto, no es un paraíso que se encontrará después, en otra vida. Cuando los guaraníes proyectan míticamente esa tierra, no la ven como un edén. La ven siempre como una tierra en esta vida. Es una tierra que no está encima, sino en el seno de la horizontalidad. Esto es muy importante porque comenzamos a dialogar con una concepción que está fuera de otras concepciones. Al ser tierra, ella tiende a ser buena. El guaraní tiene una visión estética de la tierra. Para el guaraní la tierra es un cuerpo bello, en la cual los árboles son como cabellera, la piel es, a veces, resplandeciente, brillante, y los fenómenos de erosión son las enfermedades. Esto está en la concepción que nosotros llamamos mítica, que es una concepción muy real para ellos. Rev. Bartomeu Melià S.J.

La utopía ya tuvo lugar en Paraguay Rev. Bartomeu Melià S.J. El Jardín de la Divina Abundancia y el Paraíso de Mahoma al que llegaban los españoles hacia 1537, y que tomó por nombre Paraguay, se había convertido, en menos de un siglo de presencia conquistadora, en un campo de soledad y triste collado, donde las muertes de los naturales (pero también de los españoles) eran su fruto más triste y amargo. Epidemias, guerras y malos tratos, al decir de un cronista de la época, habían provocado un ocaso demográfico en el que no quedaba sino una cuarta parte de los indios que antes había. A principios del siglo XVII reinaba en España Felipe III, y el esplendor de las letras y las artes no podía detener tampoco el ocaso de un país que esperaba más de la conquista, de la guerra y del saqueo, que del producto del campo y la ganancia de la industria. Es cierto que en ese tiempo de crisis no faltaban serias críticas, tanto políticas como teológicas, lúcidas y concretas. En las cátedras de teología y filosofía sobresalían Francisco de Vitoria y Domingo de Soto, quienes supieron trazar las líneas maestras del derecho de los indígenas, abriendo caminos seguros para el futuro derecho internacional de los pueblos. Era también una época de utopías. En 1605 aparecía en Madrid la primera parte del Quijote de Cervantes y en 1615 la segunda parte de las aventuras del mismo ingenioso hidalgo.

Apyka (Seat) by Lucy Yegros (M. M. Luciana Yegros) 1990

En un Paraguay colonial Tatarendy´y or Ava Kue Chiripa Altar Ethnic group Ava Guaraní (Tupi Guaraní) 1995

En ese Paraguay colonial de esa España colonizadora, se inicia una experiencia misionera que pronto alcanzaría la reputación de ser una “utopía que tiene lugar”, términos lógicamente contradictorios. La invención de esa utopía se gesta en un acto de gobierno bien pensado, en unas Instrucciones dadas por el padre Diego de Torres Bollo, el primer provincial de la Compañía de Jesús del Paraguay, dirigidas a los primeros jesuitas que entraban a las selvas donde apenas habían penetrado los españoles, para hacer misión entre los indios guaraníes. Esas Instrucciones de 1609, registradas por el sacerdote

historiador Pedro Lozano en su Historia de la Compañía de Jesús en la Provincia del Paraguay (t. II, Madrid 1755:136-141 y 248-252), no son sólo instrumentos para una acción política y socialmente bien planificada, sino la concreción de una espiritualidad, la de San Ignacio de Loyola, para quien “non coerceri maximo, contineri tamen minimo, divinum est” [no estar encerrado en lo máximo y caber en lo mínimo, eso es divino]. Contemplar la galaxia y escrutar el átomo, es inventar la divina utopía. Diego de Torres confiaba en esa imaginación que se convierte en causa. Imaginatio facit causam, según

un aforismo de la época. Sin embargo no todos los mundos imaginarios que salían de la pluma de los escritores conseguían vida propia. No todo lo que tiene cabeza, tiene pies. Más aun, las utopías que han circulado en el mundo de los púlpitos y de los libros raramente llegan a pisar tierra y no tienen lugar en ningún lugar. Andan de cabeza y en la cabeza que los creó, pero en realidad no tienen pies. De hecho, no tienen pies ni cabeza. Ninguna utopía comienza como utopía. Es más probable que se inicie como crítica a los agravios e injusticias del momento y como medio para salir de una situación de injusticia y agravio intolerable e insostenible.

No como y doy de comer; No visto y doy de vestir; Soy libre y he de servir; Esto, ¿cómo puede ser? Immaculate Conception (La Purísima Concepción) Polychromed carved wood Last quarter of the 18th centuryﬁrst quarter of the 19th century

Esta copla de la época que recoge Pedro Lozano (op. cit. II:289) refleja la situación de opresión en que estaban los indios en las regiones colonizadas. Pero los jesuitas no se quedarán en el lamento y en el grito de protesta sino que dirigen sus pasos hacia lo nuevo. Y lo más nuevo eran las tierras donde todavía no había presencia de españoles.

Los guaraníes como sujetos No se puede desconocer que la misión católica traída por los españoles pretende lograr cambios y conversiones y es también, en su medida, una forma de colonialismo de cariz religioso. La misión es tal vez la empresa más radi-

cal y pura que pretende, promulgando el cristianismo, extender los valores de España por el mundo entero. En la misión se dará lo más acendrado y entrañable de la política indiana. De hecho, en ningún momento las misiones jesuíticas entran en contradicción con la legislación española ni con sus instituciones. Cuando se les acusa de promover prácticas lingüísticas que dejan de lado el castellano, de no pagar el debido tributo, de ser incluso un estado dentro del estado, los jesuitas muestran que ellos precisamente, como pocos otros en la colonia, se atienen a la ley y la cumplen con exactitud. Un cumplimiento tan exagerado en la España de entonces era de por sí una utopía. Es la utopía de estar y poder estar contra la práctica de los colonos españoles y criollos, que repetidamente y de diferentes formas desacatan el mismo orden colonial. Aun hoy, en la mayoría de los países sería una verdadera utopía que sociedad y gobierno se atuvieran a lo que dice la constitución nacional que ellos mismos se han dado. Las Instrucciones del padre Torres respetan la ley, la toman como modelo de vida política, desconfían de los españoles y se fían de los indios. Por fidelidad al Evangelio que predican, los jesuitas, sobre todo de la primera época, dan un voto de confianza muy grande a la tradición de los indígenas, quienes se supone que se aman a sí mismos y a su gente. Quien ama su tierra no la destruye. En los últimos días de 1609 comenzaba, allende el río Tyvykuary, la primera “reducción” con el nombre de San Ignacio, conocido después como Guasú el grande, para distinguirlo de San Ignacio Miní, el pequeño en el Guairá. Era el principio de una nueva historia que se caracterizaría por un nuevo paradigma en cuanto

Indigenous Couple Wood and traditional ornaments of the Guaraní people

a la relación entre indios guaraníes y misioneros jesuitas como no se había dado anteriormente y no se daría, al menos con tanta nitidez, en los años posteriores. El método de “misión por reducción” era practicado de alguna manera en otras partes de América, incluso en el Paraguay, por otros misioneros como los franciscanos, pero el modelo jesuítico tiene rasgos inconfundibles. Esa experiencia modesta y tranquilamente iniciada afectaba profundamente a las relaciones de explotación de los españoles encomenderos hacia los indígenas en “ese disimulado cautiverio” y se oponía a los propósitos esclavistas de los “bandeirantes” de São Paulo, Brasil. La tensión con ambos frentes, a derecha e izquierda, se prolongaría por años y años. Desde los primeros tiempos coloniales, los españoles habían “desnaturalizado” a muchos indios, pues éstos tenían que ir a servir a las chacras y lugares de trabajo del encomendero; con los bandeirantes, a los indios se les arband rebataban sus tierras y se los llevaba a reba en los ingenios de azúcar la esclavitud es Río de Janeiro. de R Con los jesuitas los guaraníes quedaron en sus tierras y en su se qu territorio, que mantuvo su unidad terri compacta y, aunque el cristianismo com llevó a adoptar formas de vida los ll religiosa nuevas y extrañas, sin duda relig carácter colonial, la sustitución de ca quedó en gran parte mitigada por la qued permanencia de fuertes núcleos culperm turales poco cambiados. Los guaraníes tural conservaron su lengua, en el interior cons los pueblos la economía continuó de lo basándose en el intercambio de dones, basá sin lla introducción del mercadeo; en de trabajo se conjugaron la forma fo y la particularidad, la comunidad co y lla organización sociopolítica del cacicazgo se mantuvo. En realidad, los guaraníes no tuvieron que aprender

mucho de los jesuitas, sólo a hacer tal vez mejor lo que ya sabían hacer. Los pueblos vivían principalmente de la producción agrícola: maíz, mandioca, algodón y, con el tiempo, hierba mate cultivada, reforzada por la cría y explotación de ganado vacuno y caballar. La caza y la recolección no desaparecieron del todo. En las misiones jesuíticas los indios todavía se sentían guaraníes.

La conquista espiritual Cuando Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, en su viaje a Madrid, escribía La conquista espiritual (Madrid, 1639, Cap. XLV; edición de Ernesto J. A. Maeder. Rosario, 1989. Pp. 195ss.), crónica y alegato a favor de la práctica misionera de las “reducciones”, podía presentar ya el esbozo de una utopía pragmática que estaba pisando tierra en el Paraguay. ¿En qué consiste la utopía que Montoya presenta en la corte de Madrid, a consejeros del reino, a damas de la aristocracia, a gente de iglesia y a quien sepa leer? La idea de utopía tal vez procede de un espejismo ideológico, pues el mismo misionero piensa que lo admirable no es sólo el alto grado de civilización y humanidad conseguidos, sino el hecho de que esto se haya conseguido con un pueblo como el guaraní, que hasta ayer era de antropófagos y desnudos, nómades y viciosos. La utopía en este caso sería que un pueblo hubiese saltado tan gran distancia cultural y humana en tan poco tiempo. “La fuerza del Evangelio pretendo explicar”, dice Montoya, “cuya eficacia se ve en amansar leones, domesticar tigres, y de montaraces bestias hacer hombres y aun ángeles.”

Holy Trinity, Virgen Mary and the Angels Carved and polychromed wood Early 20th century

En realidad los guaraníes desarrollan toda su potencialidad en el nuevo escenario. La colonia no parece una colonia. “Son todos labradores y tiene cada uno su labranza aparte, y en pasando de once años, tienen ya su labranza los muchachos, que se ayudan unos a otros con mucha conformidad; no tienen compras ni ventas, porque con liberalidad y sin interés se socorren en sus necesidades… viven en paz y sin litigios.” Hay que tener en cuenta que eran patrimonio de los guaraníes la agricultura y el sistema económico, que los antropólogos llaman hoy de reciprocidad: todo se da, nada se

vende. La generosidad es fuente de prestigio para el que da y no tiene necesidad de recibir.

Sin los españoles Parecían también utópicos el gran progreso en las artes y oficios y el florecimiento de la música. “Son en las cosas mecánicas muy hábiles; hay muy buenos carpinteros, herreros, sastres, tejedores y zapateros, y si bien nada de esto tuvieron, la industria de los padres los ha hecho maestros, y no poco en el cultivo fácil de la tierra con arado; son notable-

mente aficionados a la música que los padres enseñan a hijos de los caciques, y a leer y escribir; ofician las misas con aparato de música, a dos y tres coros; se esmeran en tocar instrumentos, bajones, cornetas, fagotes, arpas, cítaras, vihuelas, rabeles, chirimías y otros instrumentos.” Nace así esa “república musical”, idílicamente representada por los misioneros que encantaban a los indígenas a su paso por ríos y selvas. Montoya dirá: “Forman una república política muy buena. ¿Qué más se puede pedir?” Pero era sobre todo utópico que en los dominios del rey de España, por paradoja, se cumpli-

eran las leyes de la Corona española, aunque para ello era necesario que la experiencia jesuítica se pudiera desarrollar sin españoles. “No han entrado españoles a aquella tierra por haberla conquistado sólo el Evangelio, y porque nuestro deseo ha sido que estos indios los ampare su Majestad… Que mi intento sea que los indios no sirvan personalmente, confiésolo…; mi deseo es que paguen a su Majestad el tributo que su pobreza pudiere.” Para Montoya el sentido de la misión era también la de liberar a los indios de ese “diabólico servicio personal” en el que querían colocarlos los encomenderos. La utopía consistió en conseguirlo.

Platón, como puede leerse en la reciente obra Platón y los guaraníes (Ed. CEPAG, Asunción, Paraguay, 2004). Pero la experiencia iba más allá del círculo de amigos y devotos de los jesuitas. Ludovico Muratori, que no era jesuita, escribía Il cristianesimo felice (1752) o Voltaire afirmaba que tales misiones representaban “le triomphe de l’humanité”.

El lugar de la utopía La visión utópica fue común entre los jesuitas, que la mantendrían repetidamente en sus diferentes escritos, fuesen cartas y crónicas del tiempo o libros de historia. El padre José Manuel Peramás, uno de los jesuitas expulsados de las misiones del Paraguay en 1767, compara en 1793 los pueblos guaraníes con la República de

Ao Ñe´é (The Lenguage of Clothes) by Marité Zaldívar (María Teresa Carolina Zaldívar Rolón) 2002

Reﬂejos de la esencia Aché (Reﬂections of the Aché people) Photograph by Bjarne Fostervold

El mundo guaraní –

“El pasado en lo presente” Margarita Miró Ibars Si bien la cultura guaraní no dejó monumentos materiales, su gran aporte a la humanidad radica en su visión del mundo, en su sabiduría y manejo de lo ambiental, en la trascendencia del ser humano y su unidad con lo espiritual y lo natural, trinidad perfecta para lograr el equilibrio psicosocial, espiritual y natural, visión que hoy día va recuperando funcionalidad y favoreciendo al mantenimiento del planeta Tierra.

Owl Mask (Agüero-Ndechi Ñakurutu) Ñakuru Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní) 1990

Owl Mask (Agüero-Ndechi Ñakurutu) Ñaku Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní) 1990

Ao Ñe´é (The Lenguage of Clothes) by Marité Zaldívar (María Teresa Carolina Zaldívar Rolón) 2002

¿Cuáles son los aportes que hoy día nos brinda la cultura guaraní, con sus maderos cruzados, en nuestro rumbo hacia el tercer milenio? Los maderos cruzados, la cruz florida (prehispánica) de Ñanderuvusú (Dios eterno), portador del mbaekua´a (la sabiduría), simboliza la unión del ser humano con lo divino, recordando su horizontalidad entre los seres humanos y los demás elementos de la naturaleza. Hoy que hemos roto los velos y que, gracias a la circulación de información y al saber popular, podemos conocer, evaluar y valorar las ideas que regían en décadas pasadas, decimos con justicia que la cultura guaraní siempre contó con principios universales que contribuían al equilibrio de la naturaleza humana y del mundo. Los guaraníes reconocían el valor del “ser” (tekoete), del ser humano en su plenitud, dueño de sí mismo, el verdadero “ser” con poderes sobre sí mismo, sobre la naturaleza, sobre lo trascendental, con autoestima personal y comunitaria: “yo valgo”, “yo soy”, “yo puedo”. Si yo me siento incapaz, impotente, imperfecto, ¿cómo puedo construir o generar una sociedad justa, equitativa, o armoniosa? Hay palabras milenarias que hoy se han vuelto insignias para la construcción de una sociedad más justa y equitativa: tekó jojá (la equidad, que no es lo mismo que la igualdad, pues muchas cosas no pueden ser iguales, ya que la creación, el origen del génesis, las hizo diferentes); ñemongueta (el diálogo); jekupyty (el consenso). Obtener una simple mayoría por votos no es lo mismo que asumir una responsabilidad o tomar un rumbo deliberado por consenso. El voluntariado, tan pregonado y ensalzado por la sociedad, que nos obliga a convertirlo en un mecanismo permanente para resolver los conflic-

Tapir´s Head (Agüero-Ndechi Mborevi) Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní) 1990

tos creados por un individualismo ultrajante, ya estaba establecido en el ojopói. La equidad de género. En la naturaleza la mujer y el varón no eran ni superior ni inferior el uno al otro; simplemente eran diferentes y se complementaban, cada uno en su papel. La mujer tenía su espacio, su intimidad, su gobierno, su saber. La mujer era y sigue siendo entre las comunidades guaraníes sobrevivientes la “oga jara” o dueña del hogar, de todo lo que atañe a la administración de los bienes familiares; no es la servija o sirvienta, sometida al varón, esclava sexual, incapaz de administrar sus bienes (conceptos introducidos por el conquistador). La búsqueda de la Tierra sin Mal (yvy maraey) el catolicismo rápidamente la interpretó como la búsqueda del paraíso después de la muerte, pero hoy en día, con los aportes de

Viper´s Head (Agüero-Ndechi Mboi) Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní) 1990

la ciencia y del desarrollo sostenible, se puede afirmar que el guaraní vivía en un paraíso terrenal, en una tierra donde todo el año manaban miel, agua, frutas y alimento. El área boscosa del hábitat de la comunidad guaraní, desde el Caribe, pasando por el Amazonas y los territorios de los ríos Paraná y Paraguay, tiene una naturaleza extremadamente generosa que el ser humano contamina, empobrece y destruye, extrayéndole todo sin dar nada a cambio. Al ocupar el ser humano un territorio, lo contamina, lo desgasta y debilita la tierra; los recursos naturales se agotan, menoscabando el equilibrio del cuerpo y el espíritu. Al observar este desgaste natural, el guaraní realizaba migraciones periódicas y cíclicas para darle tiempo a la naturaleza de recuperarse, logrando de esa forma revertir la conducta destructiva del ser humano para que las generaciones

Fox Head (Agüero-Ndechi Aguara) Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní) 1993

posteriores pudieran seguir disfrutando del mismo paraíso terrenal. El guaraní no tenía templos de piedra; su templo era la naturaleza. Para la comunidad guaraní la tierra era sagrada y es sagrada; es la madre de todos. Por esta razón, hasta el día de hoy sus descendientes, en su opy o casa de devoción, mantienen el piso o la base de tierra y oran descalzos. El saber guaraní acerca de la naturaleza humana y del uso de las plantas (la etnomedicina y la etnobótanica) ha sido confirmado por la sofisticada ciencia de nuestros días. También debemos mencionar la riqueza del idioma guaraní; onomatopéyico, sincrético, sonoro, sintético y profundo, lo aprecian los extranjeros, pero además sigue fuertemente ligado a la cotidianeidad del paraguayo actual.

Estilos del arte indígena guaraní Ticio Escobar (resumido y adaptado por Félix Ángel)

Un primer criterio que puede adoptarse para diferenciar a los distintos pueblos indígenas asentados en territorio paraguayo es el basado en sus módulos subsistenciales. Así, los distintos grupos étnicos pueden clasificarse en dos sistemas culturales según sean fundamentalmente cazadores-recolectores o agricultores. Dentro del primer grupo se encuentran las comunidades pertenecientes a las familias lingüísticas zamuco, mataco, guaykurú, y maskoy ubicadas en el Gran Chaco (región occidental de Paraguay), mientras que el segundo comprende a las que viven en la región oriental. Esta clasificación, hecha por comodidad didáctica, es una referencia elemental que sólo pretende ubicar rápidamente a los grupos étnicos para comprender mejor el arte que producen.

Untitled 2001 Photograph by Jaun Aníbal Britos Basualdo

El sistema de caza y recolección, así como el ethos nomádico a él vinculado, condiciona una trama cultural más flexible a incorporaciones y adaptaciones diversas. La cultura agrícola guaraní, pendiente de los ciclos naturales, es más conservadora y cerrada a innovaciones. Estos factores desempeñaron un papel importante en el momento de la transculturación colonial y marcan con fuerza la

producción simbólica de las diferentes sociedades indígenas, permitiendo identificar rasgos comunes y diferencias. Tanto las sociedades cazadoras como las agricultoras se estructuran en torno a un núcleo mítico ritual que aglutina las instancias del poder, el orden jurídico, el ocio, la belleza y la religión. Por lo tanto, las formas básicas de sus manifestaciones

visuales guardan relación con el rito y la autoidentificación tribal. Dichas formas parten del cuerpo humano, soporte privilegiado de la expresión indígena: la ornamentación plumaria, el tatuaje y la pintura corporal entre los chaqueños y el arte plumario entre los guaraníes constituyen los arquetipos básicos. Por otro lado, la fiesta ritual es en sí una obra de arte total que integra la creación colectiva.

Reﬂejos de la esencia Aché (Reﬂections of the Aché People) Photograph by Bjarne Fostervold

Otro gran foco de creación estética se origina en la producción económica. Los objetos ligados a la subsistencia requieren de formas arraigadas en el imaginario colectivo, como la cestería guaraní y los tejidos chaqueños de caraguatá. La conexión de dichas formas con el ritual y la producción económica tiene significaciones culturales profundas en cada etnia. Por eso tienden a ser estables y a resistir los embates de la historia. Aun las culturas cazadoras tienden a mantener una cierta reserva simbólica que sirve de brújula en los procesos de cambio. Aunque se incorporen signos nuevos y se renueven las técnicas, el esquema antiguo del rito se conserva. Las formas periféricas, aunque se nutren estilísticamente de fuentes más fuertes que ellas, tienen menos responsabilidades expresivas y pueden ceder a la seducción o imposición de novedades técnicas. La adaptación de los abalorios y motivos de tejidos en lana de los chaqueños, la ornamentación en la cerámica de los chiriguanos y los caduceos, la talla zoomorfa chiripá o manjui, la cestería chamacoco, por ejemplo, suponen procesos de hibridación que han abierto posibilidades nuevas a la expresión. Teniendo en cuenta lo anterior, pueden distinguirse básicamente tres grupos de estética guaraní.

El clásico guaraní Ascetas y rigurosos, impulsados obsesivamente por la vida interior y la búsqueda de la plenitud de la experiencia humana, los guaraníes desarrollan una estética sobria y austera. Sus signos ornamentales corresponden a soluciones escuetas, sus diseños buscan la síntesis, sus ornamentos son esenciales y sus coreografías exactas. Este laconismo afecta a las formas básicas y periféricas. Aunque la documentación es muy escasa, podría suponerse que el antiguo arte plumario guaraní era exuberante y se fue depurando a partir de la colonia. Los suntuosos mantos de pluma, las coronas y los cubrenucas fueron simplificándose y la parquedad que revisten hoy día expresa el repliegue de una cultura sitiada y la depredación ecológica. Las generosas pinturas corporales se han abreviado en señas faciales mínimas: los mbyá subrayan el enigma de su identidad con pequeños ángulos oscuros y curvas que concentran en el rostro la escritura casi perdida de su grupo étnico.

Ao ñe´é (Headdress with Feathers) by Marité Zaldivar (Maria Teresa Carolina Zaldívar Rolón) Feathers and rope 2002

Los guaraníes chaqueños Los chiriguanos, llamados comúnmente guarayos y autodenominados avá o mbyá, son descendientes de grupos tupíes y guaraníes que, en épocas inmediatamente anteriores a la conquista española, emigraron a la región occidental por impulsos bélicos, ideales religiosos, razones políticas y presiones económicas. Los chiriguanos tuvieron que hacer enormes esfuerzos para readaptarse al medio subandino y reformular su afirmación guaraní. Por eso el arte chiriguano debe considerarse un caso atípico dentro del guaraní. Sus formas están basadas en la hibridez y el desdoblamiento.

Los guaranizados Considerados parte de la familia lingüística guaraní, los aché desarrollan una estética propia que expresa sus muchas diferencias socioculturales como grupo cazador-recolector. Su sensibilidad estética es oscura y agresiva, y nada tiene que ver con la delicada armonía y sutileza de los guaraníes. Sus colores son secos y sombríos. Es el único grupo étnico que no incorpora los colores primarios, inclinándose por el negro, los grises y los pardos. Sus signos son fuertes y están animados de una expresividad bárbara, de una poética hosca que se manifiesta en el desprecio por la delicadeza y la preferencia por la rudeza de lo áspero. El ámbito aché es un mundo duro que contrasta con la dulzura serena de sus cánticos, la calidez y sonrisa de sus moradores. __________________________ * Fuente: La belleza de los otros: arte indígena del Paraguay (1993), Centro de Documentación e Investigaciones de Arte Popular e Indígena del Centro de Artes Visuales, RP Ediciones, Asunción, Paraguay.

Ñandutí Vera (Resplandescent Embroidery) by Marité Zaldívar (María Teresa Carolina Zaldívar Rolón) 2002

Two Cherubs (architectural decoration) Carved stone First half of the 18th century

Gargoyle (architectural decoration) Carved stone First half of the 18th century

Curricula Vitae

Bartomeu Melià i Lliteres Sacerdote jesuita, nace en Porreres (Baleares), España, el 7 de diciembre de 1932. En 1954 llega al Paraguay, donde realiza estudios de carácter antropológico, lingüístico y filosófico sobre la cultura guaraní. Es miembro de la Société des Américanistes de París (1968), de la Comisión Nacional de Bilingüismo del Ministerio de Educación y Cultura de la República del Paraguay (1994), y de la Academia Paraguaya de la Lengua Española; correspondiente de la Real Academia Española, de la Academia Paraguaya de Historia (2004) y de la Real Academia de la Historia de Madrid, y Director del Departamento de Lengua y Cultura del Centro de Estudios Paraguayos “Antonio Guasch”. Entre sus obras figuran Historia de la lengua guaraní (Ed. Mafre, Barcelona, España), El guaraní conquistado y reducido: ensayos de etnohistoria (Biblioteca Paraguaya de Antropología del Centro de Estudios Antropológicos de la Universidad Católica de Asunción, Asunción, Paraguay, 1986), Guaraníes y jesuitas en tiempo de las misiones: una bibliografía didáctica (Ed. CEPAG, Asunción, Paraguay, 1995). Se le considera uno de los principales estudiosos de la cultura guaraní, junto a León Cadogan, Egon Schaden y Curt Nimuendajú Unkel.

Margarita Miró Ibars

Ticio Escobar

Nace en Asunción, Paraguay, en 1952. Egresa de la Facultad de Filosofía de la Universidad Nacional de Asunción con la carrera de Historia. Desde 1983 vive en Carapeguá, donde inicia sus investigaciones sobre temas relacionados con la identidad nacional y la cultura tradicional. Ha sido Directora General de Investigación y Apoyo Cultural del Viceministerio de Cultura, y ha participado en proyectos interinsti o el patrocinio de la UNESCO para salvaguardar géneros musicales y danzas de minorías en vías de extinción. Cuenta entre sus obras Karu Reko: antropología culinaria paraguaya (Servilibro, Asunción, Paraguay, 2004); Formación natural y social del entorno de los humedales del Ypoá y Carapeguá (Servilibro, Asunción, Paraguay, 2002); Mujeres que tejen arte: origen y sentido de la artesanía carapegüeña (Carapeguá, Paraguay, 2002); Alimentación y religiosidad paraguaya: chipa pan sagrado (Servilibro, Asunción, Paraguay, 2001); Tembí¨u Rehegua:reivindicación de la cultura culinaria guaraní y paraguaya (Ed. Salesiana, Carapeguá, Paraguay, 1995).

Nace en Asunción, Paraguay, en 1947. Es abogado y doctor en filosofía, crítico de arte y gestor cultural, así como fundador y Director del Museo de Arte Indígena del Paraguay (1993-2005) y ex Director de Cultura del municipio de la ciudad de Asunción. Trabaja con Teixeira (BR) en diagnósticos y propuestas para fomentar el desarrollo cultural en Latinoamérica. Es miembro fundador de la Comisión de Solidaridad con los Pueblos Indígenas y está afiliado a diversas instituciones referidas a la cultura nacional y latinoamericana. Ha dirigido en Paraguay, como Mato en Caracas (VE), el proyecto Identidades en Tránsito, patrocinado por la Fundación Rockefeller. Ha recibido varios galardones, entre ellos la distinción de Crítico Latinoamericano del Año otorgada en 1985 por la Sección Argentina de la Asociación Internacional de Críticos de Arte (AICA); el Premio Príncipe Klaus de Holanda por sus investigaciones, corpus teórico y ensayos sobre el arte indígena; y el Premio Héroe Urbano de la Fundación Príncipe Klaus. Entre sus obras figuran La belleza de los otros: arte indígena del Paraguay (RP Ediciones, Asunción, Paraguay, 1993); La maldición de Nemur: acerca del arte, el mito y el ritual de los indígenas ishir del Gran Chaco paraguayo (Centro de Artes Visuales–Museo del Barro, Asunción, Paraguay, 1999).

Works of the Exhibit Property of the National Secretariat of Tourism, Collection of the Lythic Museum of the Jesuit Mission of the Guaranies of the Holy Trinity

1. Title: Gargoyle (architectural decoration) Artist: Anonymous Medium: Carved stone Provenance: Jesuit Mission of the Guaranies of the Holy Trinity, Trinidad, Paraguay Dimensions: h: 35 cm; w: 50 cm; d: 70 cm Date: First half of the 18th century Ownership and collection: Property of the National Secretariat of Tourism, Collection of the Lythic Museum of the Jesuit Mission of the Guaranies of the Holy Trinity

2. Title: Flower Motif (architectural decoration) Artist: Anonymous Medium: Carved stone Provenance: Jesuit Mission of the Guaranies of the Holy Trinity, Trinidad, Paraguay. Dimensions: h: 45 cm; w: 55 cm; d: 30 cm Date: First half of the 18th century Ownership and collection: Property of the National Secretariat of Tourism, Collection of the Lythic Museum of the Jesuit Mission of the Guaranies of the Holy Trinity

4. Title: Two Cherubs (architectural decoration) Artist: Anonymous Medium: Carved stone Provenance: Jesuit Mission of the Guaranies of the Holy Trinity, Trinidad, Paraguay Dimensions: h: 15 cm; w: 50 cm; d: 20 cm Date: First half of the 18th century Ownership and collection: Property of the National Secretariat of Tourism, Collection of the Lythic Museum of the Jesuit Mission of the Guaranies of the Holy Trinity

5. Title: Fauna and Flora Motif (architectural decoration) Artist: Anonymous Medium: Carved stone Provenance: Jesuit Mission of the Guaranies of the Holy Trinity, Trinidad, Paraguay Dimensions: h: 85 cm; w: 1,05 cm; d: 40 cm Date: First half of the 18th century Ownership and collection: Property of the National Secretariat of Tourism, Collection of the Lythic Museum of the Jesuit Mission of the Guaranies of the Holy Trinity

3. Title: Fauna and Flora Motif (architectural decoration) Artist: Anonymous Medium: Carved stone Provenance: Jesuit Mission of the Guaranies of the Holy Trinity, Trinidad, Paraguay Dimensions: h: 85 cm; w: 1,05 cm; d: 40 cm Date: First half of the 18th century Ownership and collection: Property of the National Secretariat of Tourism, Collection of the Lythic Museum of the Jesuit Mission of the Guaranies of the Holy Trinity

Property of Guido Boggiani Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum, San Lorenzo, Paraguay

6. Title: Tatarendy´y or Ava Kue Chiripa Altar Artist: Ethnic group Ava Guaraní (Tupi Guaraní) Medium: Various types of wood Provenance: Fortuna, Department of Kanindeju, Paraguay Dimensions: Altar: h: 2 m; w: 20 cm; l: 1.45 m; Batea: 27 cm; w: 28 cm; l: 2.41 m Date: 1995 Ownership and collection: Property of the Guido Boggiani Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum, San Lorenzo, Paraguay Description: The Altar is composed of 55 pieces, 18 of which are structures. The central piece (cenit) is called Kurusu or cross, and supports the Flowered Cross called Kurusu Poty, where the migratory birds rest. The central rod signiﬁes the body of Ñande Ru Pave or Father of All.

7. Title: Winged Face Mask (Agüero-Güero Chova Pepo) Artist: Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní) Medium: Samu´u and Jukyry Rusu wood Provenance: Santa Teresita, Department of Boquerón, Paraguay Dimensions: h: 28 cm; w: 38 cm; d: 12 cm Date: 1989 Ownership and collection: Guido Boggiani Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum, San Lorenzo, Paraguay Description: Mask used during the Kandavare or Chiriguano Carnival. It represents the soul of young and adult people. The wings traditionally symbolize the soul of birds such as the falcon, which reincarnate the Shaman (Ipaje) and the worriers (Kerymba).

8. Title: Winged Face Mask (Agüero-Güero Chova Pepo) Artist: Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní) Medium: Samu´u and Jukyry Rusu wood Provenance: Santa Teresita, Department of Boquerón, Paraguay Dimensions: h: 28 cm; w: 38 cm; d: 12 cm Date: 1990 Ownership and collection: Archaeological and Ethnographic Guido Boggiani Museum, San Lorenzo, Paraguay Description: Mask used during the Kandavare or Chiriguano Carnival. It represents the soul of young and adult people. The wings traditionally symbolize the soul of birds such as the falcon, which reincarnate the Shaman (Ipaje) and the worriers (Kerymba).

9. Title: Owl Mask (Agüero-Ndechi Ñakurutu) Artist: Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní) Medium: Samu´u and Jukyry Rusu wood Provenance: Santa Teresita, Department of Boquerón, Paraguay Dimensions: h: 24 cm; w: 12 cm; d: 12 cm Date: 1990 Ownership and collection: Archaeological and Ethnographic Guido Boggiani Museum, San Lorenzo, Paraguay Description: Mask used during the Kandavare or Chiriguano Carnival. It represents the soul of older people transformed into undesirable birds such as the owl (Ñakurutu).

10. Title: Owl Mask (Agüero-Ndechi Ñakurutu) Artist: Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní) Medium: Samu´u and Jukyry Rusu wood Provenance: Santa Teresita, Department of Boquerón, Paraguay Dimensions: h: 24 cm; w: 19 cm; d: 9 cm Date: 1990 Ownership and collection: Archaeological and Ethnographic Guido Boggiani Museum, San Lorenzo, Paraguay Description: Mask used during the Kandavare or Chiriguano Carnival. It represents the soul of older people transformed into undesirable birds such as the owl (Ñakurutu).

11. Title: Mask with Peak and Crest (Agüero-Güero Mbae Poty) Artist: Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní) Medium: Samu´u and Jukyry Rusu wood Provenance: Santa Teresita, Department of Boquerón, Paraguay Dimensions: h: 38 cm; w: 15 cm; d: 11 cm Date: 1986 Ownership and collection: Archaeological and Ethnographic Guido Boggiani Museum, San Lorenzo, Paraguay Description: Mask used during the Kandavare or Chiriguano Carnival. It represents the soul of young and adult people. The crest represents the ﬂowering of the soul (Poty). The cheeks are painted with a red circle, a traditional feature of the facial ornamentation of the Chiriguano people.

12. Title: Mask with Peak and Crest (Agüero-Güero Mbae Poty) Artist: Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní) Medium: Samu´u and Jukyry Rusu wood Provenance: Santa Teresita, Department of Boquerón, Paraguay Dimensions: h: 38 cm; w: 15 cm; d: 11 cm Date: 1986 Ownership and collection: Archaeological and Ethnographic Guido Boggiani Museum, San Lorenzo, Paraguay Description: Mask used during the Kandavare or Chiriguano Carnival. It represents the soul of young and adult people. The crest represents the ﬂowering of the soul (Poty). The cheeks are painted with a red circle, a traditional feature of the facial ornamentation of the Chiriguano people.

13. Title: Mask with Peak and Crest (Agüero-Güero Mbae Poty) Artist: Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní) Medium: Samu´u and Jukyry Rusu wood Provenance: Santa Teresita, Department of Boquerón, Paraguay Dimensions: h: 38 cm; w: 15 cm; d: 11 cm Date: 1996 Ownership and collection: Archaeological and Ethnographic Guido Boggiani Museum, San Lorenzo, Paraguay Description: Mask used during the Kandavare or Chiriguano Carnival. It represents the soul of young and adult people. The crest represents the ﬂowering of the soul (Poty). The cheeks are painted red, a traditional feature of the facial ornamentation of the Chiriguano people.

14. Title: Mask with Peak and Crest (Agüero-Güero Mbae Poty) Artist: Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní) Medium: Samu´u and Jukyry Rusu wood Provenance: Santa Teresita, Department of Boquerón, Paraguay Dimensions: h: 35 cm; w: 15 cm; d: 12 cm Date: 1986 Ownership and collection: Archaeological and Ethnographic Guido Boggiani Museum, San Lorenzo, Paraguay Description: Mask used during the Kandavare or Chiriguano Carnival. It represents the soul of young and adult people. The crest represents the ﬂowering of the soul (Poty). The cheeks are painted red, a traditional feature of the facial ornamentation of the Chiriguano people.

15. Title: Mask with Peak and Crest (Agüero-Güero Mbae Poty) Artist: Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní) Medium: Samu´u and Jukyry Rusu wood Provenance: Santa Teresita, Department of Boquerón, Paraguay Dimensions: h: 38 cm; w: 15 cm; d: 11 cm Date: 1996 Ownership and collection: Archaeological and Ethnographic Guido Boggiani Museum, San Lorenzo, Paraguay Description: Mask used during the Kandavare or Chiriguano Carnival. It represents the soul of young and adult people. The crest represents the ﬂowering of the soul (Poty). The cheeks are painted red, a traditional feature of the facial ornamentation of the Chiriguano people.

16. Title: Mask with Peak and Crest (Agüero-Güero Mbae Poty) Artist: Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní) Medium: Samu´u and Jukyry Rusu wood Provenance: Santa Teresita, Department of Boquerón, Paraguay Dimensions: h: 38 cm; w: 14 cm; d: 11 cm Date: 1986 Ownership and collection: Archaeological and Ethnographic Guido Boggiani Museum, San Lorenzo, Paraguay Description: Mask used during the Kandavare or Chiriguano Carnival. It represents the soul of young and adult people. The crest represents the ﬂowering of the soul (Poty). The cheeks are painted red, a traditional feature of the facial ornamentation of the Chiriguano people.

17. Title: Colibri´s Head (Agüero-Ndechi Maino) Artist: Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní) Medium: Samu´u and Jukyry Rusu wood Provenance: Santa Teresita, Department of Boquerón, Paraguay Dimensions: h: 14 cm; w: 17 cm; d: 43 cm Date: 1990 Ownership and collection: Archaeological and Ethnographic Guido Boggiani Museum, Paraguay Description: Mask used during the Kandavare or Chiriguano Carnival. It represents the soul of older people transformed into harmless animals like the Colibri (Maino), and expression of the Indestructible Colibrí (Maino Ju), the soul that emanates rays (Tiri).

18. Title: Tucan’s Head (Agüero-Ndechi Tukä) Artist: Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní) Medium: Samu´u and Jukyry Rusu wood Provenance: Santa Teresita, Department of Boquerón, Paraguay Dimensions: h: 14 cm; w: 19 cm; d: 45 cm Date: 1992 Ownership and collection: Archaeological and Ethnographic Guido Boggiani Museum, San Lorenzo, Paraguay Description: Mask used during the Kandavare or Chiriguano Carnival. It represents the soul of older people transformed into harmless animals like the Tucán (Tucä), and expression of the Mithycal Tucan (Tucä Ju/Tucä Vusu).

19. Title: Fox Head (Agüero-Ndechi Aguara) Artist: Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní) Medium: Samu´u and Jukyry Rusu wood Provenance: Santa Teresita, Department of Boquerón, Paraguay Dimensions: h: 13 cm; w: 18 cm; d: 43 cm Date: 1993 Ownership and collection: Archaeological and Ethnographic Guido Boggiani Museum, San Lorenzo, Paraguay Description: Mask used during the Kandavare or Chiriguano Carnival. It represents the soul of older people which after reincarnation are transformed at night into animals like the fox (Aguara).

20. Title: Tapir´s Head (Agüero-Ndechi Mborevi) Artist: Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní) Medium: Samu´u and Jukyry Rusu wood Provenance: Santa Teresita, Department of Boquerón, Paraguay Dimensions: h: 20 cm; w: 19 cm; d: 36 cm Date: 1990 Ownership and collection: Archaeological and Ethnographic Guido Boggiani Museum, San Lorenzo, Paraguay Description: Mask used during the Kandavare or Chiriguano Carnival. It represents the soul of older people transformed into harmless animals such as the Tapir (Mborevi).

21. Title: Viper´s Head (Agüero-Ndechi Mboi) Artist: Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní) Medium: Samu´u and Jukyry Rusu wood Provenance: Santa Teresita, Department of Boquerón, Paraguay Dimensions: h: 14 cm; w: 19 m; d: 19 cm Date: 1990 Ownership and collection: Archaeological and Ethnographic Guido Boggiani Museum, San Lorenzo, Paraguay Description: This type of mask is used during the Kandavare or Chiriguano Carnival. It represents the soul of older people which after reincarnation are transformed into dangerous animals such as the serpent (Mboi Ru).

22. Title: Jaguar´s Head (Agüero-Ndechi Jagua-Jagua) Artist: Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní) Medium: Samu´u and Jukyry Rusu wood Provenance: Santa Teresita, Department of Boquerón, Paraguay Dimensions: h: 14 cm; w: 20 cm; d: 26 cm Date: 1989 Ownership and collection: Archaeological and Ethnographic Guido Boggiani Museum, San Lorenzo, Paraguay Description: This type of mask is used during the Kandavare or Chiriguano Carnival. It represents the soul of older people transformed into potential enemies like the jaguar (Jagua-Jagua), which must be annihilated to guarantee one’s survival in the “Areté Guasu”.

23. Title: Violin (Miori) Artist: Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní) Medium: Yvyra Ñamandu, Yvyra Ju´Y and Kusupikaywood, strings of Pindo Rivi Provenance: Santa Teresita, Department of Boquerón, Paraguay Dimensions: h: 5 cm; w: 23 cm; d: 65 cm Date: 1989 Ownership and collection: Archaeological and Ethnographic Guido Boggiani Museum, San Lorenzo, Paraguay Description: Instrument utilized by the musicians of the “Arete Guasu” at the begining of the Great Fiesta or celebration, when the ﬁrst masks make their appearance.

24 Title: Flute (Mimby) 24. Artist: Chiriguano ethnic group (Tupi Guaraní) A Medium: Takuati bamboo M Provenance: Santa Teresita, Department of Boquerón, Paraguay P D Dimensions: l: 45 cm; d: 2.5 cm Date: 1989 D Ownership and collection: Archaeological and Ethnographic O Guido Boggiani Museum, San Lorenzo, Paraguay G Description: Along with the wooden drum or box D (Jukyry Rusu), the Mimby is the main instrument in the “Arete Guasu” celebration.

Property of the Carlos Colombino Lailla Foundation, on extended loan to the Collection of the Visual Arts Center (Centro de Artes Visuales / Museo del Barro), Asunción, Paraguay

25. Title: Dying or Asleep Aticulated Figure of Saint Artist: Unknown Medium: Carved and polychromed wood Dimensions: h: 20 cm; w: 23 cm; d: 60 cm Date: 19th century Ownership and collection: Property of the Carlos Colombino Lailla Foundation, on extended loan to the Collection of the Visual Arts Center (Centro de Artes Visuales / Museo del Barro), Asunción, Paraguay Description: Figurines like this were very popular throughout the colonial period. They could be dressed in different fashions and accommodated to a variety of positions and situations depending on the occasion. The same ﬁgure could be dressed in an array of costumes to impersonate different characters, to celebrate a particular saint or religious individual, especially when availability of religious iconography was scarce.

26. Title: Figure of Saint or Virgin Artist: Unknown Medium: Carved and polychromed wood Dimensions: h: 49 cm; w: 17 cm; d: 16 cm Date: 19th century Ownership and collection: Property of the Carlos Colombino Lailla Foundation, on extended loan to the Collection of the Visual Arts Center (Centro de Artes Visuales / Museo del Barro), Asunción, Paraguay Description: The frame of this carved figure suggests that in all probability it was used to represent a virgin, an angel or any other female character of the Catholic iconography. The bottom was traditionally covered with heavy gowns, tunics or skirts, and the final figure depended on the use of make up, wigs, wings, tiaras, crowns and fancy costumery. Figurines like these were very popular throughout the colonial period. They could be dressed in different fashions and accommodated a variety of positions and situations depending on the occasion.

27. Title: Jesus Child Savior of the World Artist: Unknown, from the Workshops of the Jesuit Missions in Paraguay Medium: Carved and polychromed wood Dimensions: h: 80 cm; w: 26 cm; d: 25 cm Date: 18th century Ownership and collection: Property of the Carlos Colombino Lailla Foundation, on extended loan to the Collection of the Visual Arts Center (Centro de Artes Visuales / Museo del Barro), Asunción, Paraguay.

28. Title: The Lord of the Palms Artist: Unknown Medium: Carved and polychromed wood Dimensions: h: 66 cm; w: 60 cm; d: 24 cm Date: 19th century Ownership and collection: Property of the Carlos Colombino Lailla Foundation, on extended loan to the Collection of the Visual Arts Center (Centro de Artes Visuales / Museo del Barro), Asunción, Paraguay Description: The ﬁgure represents the New Testament passage of the triumphal entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem, riding a donkey, a few days before his arrest and execution. The ﬁgure of Jesus is roughly carved in those areas that are intended to be covered with fancy garments.

29. Title: Holy Trinity, Virgen Mary and the Angels Artist: Unknown Medium: Carved and polychromed wood Dimensions: h: 46 cm; w: 60 cm; d: 14 cm Date: Early 20th century Ownership and collection: Property of the Carlos Colombino Lailla Foundation, on extended loan to the Collection of the Visual Arts Center (Centro de Artes Visuales / Museo del Barro), Asunción, Paraguay Description: This “retablo” or portable altar is a typical religious item of the Spanish American household. The more modest the individual who owned one, the more whimsical the manner in which the subject matter was interpreted.

30. Title: Saint Rosa of Lima Artist: Unknown Medium: Carved and polychromed wood Dimensions: h: 45 cm; w: 25 cm; d: 5 cm Date: 19th century Ownership and collection: Property of the Carlos Colombino Lailla Foundation, on extended loan to the Collection of the Visual Arts Center (Centro de Artes Visuales / Museo del Barro), Asunción, Paraguay Description: A Peruvian nun elevated to sainthood, Saint Rosa de Lima became very popular among the mestizo and creole population of South America during the colonial period up to the present. She was born in 1586 in Lima, the daughter of wealthy Spanish immigrants. A beautiful girl and devoted daughter, she was so committed to her vow of chastity, she used pepper and lye to ruin her complexion so she would not be attractive. She was offered marriage by a very rich man, but she refused because she wanted to live for Jesus only. She had to work very hard in order to help her parents when they lost their fortune and also cared for the poor. Because of her purity and charity it is said that the Holy Infant Jesus appeared to her several times to tell her how pleased God is with those who are merciful. She is the ﬁrst saint born in South America. She had great devotion to Saint Catherine of Siena. She died on August 24, 1617.

Property of the National Museum of Fine Arts, Asunción, Paraguay 31. Title: Immaculate Conception (La Purísima Concepción) Artist: Unknown Medium: Polychromed carved wood Dimensions: h: 77 cm; w: 35 cm; d: 25 cm Date: Last quarter of the 18th century-ﬁrst quarter of the 19th century Ownership and collection: National Museum of Fine Arts, Asunción, Paraguay Description: Religious ﬁgure in the tradition of the HispanicGuaraní Barroque Style.

32. Title: Virgin of the Candlemas (Virgen de la Candelaria) Artist: Unknown Medium: Polychromed carved wood Dimensions: h: 91 cm; w: 33 cm; d: 33 cm Date: Second half of the 18th century-ﬁrst half of the 19th century Ownership and collection: National Museum of Fine Arts, Asunción, Paraguay Description: Religious ﬁgure in the tradition of the HispanicGuaran”i Barroque Style.

Private Collection of Ysanne Gayet, Areguá, Paraguay 33. Title: Drum (Tambor de Vacapi) Artist: Unknown Medium: Wood, cowhide and willow Dimensions: h: 35 cm; w: 50 cm; d: 70 cm Date: Unknown Ownership and collection: Private collection of Ysanne Gayet, Areguá, Paraguay.

34. Title: Aché Family (Familia Aché) Artist: Unknown Medium: Cedar wood Dimensions: Female: h: 2 m; d: 23 cm; w: 25 cm; male: h: 1.50 m; d: 25 cm; w: 34 cm; girl: h: 92 cm; d: 18 cm; w: 20 cm; boy: h: 80 cm; d: 15 cm; w: 24 cm Date: Unknown Ownership and collection: Private collection of Ysanne Gayet, Areguá, Paraguay.

36. Title: Apyká Taguá (Three Chairs in the Shape of a Tapir) Artist: Unknown Medium: Wood and phyroengraving Dimensions: 1) h: 30 cm; w: 65 cm; d: 20 cm; 2) h: 33 cm; w: 75 cm; d: 26 cm; 3) h: 38 cm; d: 15 cm; w: 25 cm Date: Unknown Ownership and collection: Private collection of Ysanne Gayet, Areguá, Paraguay.

37. Title: Indigenous Couple Artist: Unknown Medium: Wood and traditional ornaments of the Guaraní people Dimensions: Female: h: 88 cm; w: 19 cm; d: 19 cm; male: h: 1 m; w: 27 cm; d: 17 cm Date: Unknown Ownership and collection: Private collection of Ysanne Gayet, Areguá, Paraguay.

Private Collection of Mr. Oscar Centurión Frontanilla, Asunción, Paraguay 38. Title: Trunk Artist: Unknown Medium: Wood and inlaid wood with naturalistic and zoomorphic designs Dimensions: h: 51cm; l: 1.13 m Date: 18th century Ownership and collection: Private collection of Mr. Oscar Centurión Frontanilla, Asunción, Paraguay Description: The trunk is decorated with designs inspired by the Mburucuyá ﬂower, the Jaguar (Yaguareté) and the fox (Aguara).

39. Title: Coffer Artist: Pérez Medium: Wood inlaid with river mother-of-pearl Dimensions: h: 16 cm; w: 13 cm; w: 20 cm Date: 20th Century Ownership and collection: Private collection of Mr. Oscar Centurión Frontanilla, Asunción, Paraguay Description: The coffer is decorated with naturalistic and geometric designs.

35. Title: Fish (Pez) Artist: Unknown Medium: Wood and phyroengraving Dimensions: h: 80 cm; w: 30 cm; d: 10 cm Date: Unknown Ownership and collection: Private collection of Ysanne Gayet, Areguá, Paraguay.

From the artist Marité Zaldivar

40. Title: Ñandutí Vera (Resplandescent Embroidery) Artist: Marité Zaldívar (María Teresa Carolina Zaldívar Rolón) Medium: Embroidery and lights Dimensions: h: 37 cm; w: 38 cm; d: 63 cm Date: 2002 Ownership and collection: Collection of the artist Description: Ñandutí is a form a traditional Paraguayan embroidery.

41. Title: Ao Ñe´é (The Lenguage of Clothes) Artist: Marité Zaldívar (María Teresa Carolina Zaldívar Rolón) Medium: Dress with Karandá details and embroidery Dimensions: h: 94 cm; w: 38 cm; d: 7cm Date: 2002 Ownership and collection: Collection of the artist

43. Title: Accessory Ao Ñe´é (The Lenguage of Clothes) Artist: Marité Zaldívar (María Teresa Carolina Zaldívar Rolón) Medium: Carved porongos (gourds) and sticks Dimensions: h: 75 cm; w: 17 cm; d: 17cm Date: 2002 Ownership and collection: Collection of the artist

44. Title Ao ñe´ é (Headdress with Feathers) Artist: Marité Zaldívar (María Teresa Carolina Zaldívar Rolón) Medium: Feathers and rope Dimensions: h: 80 cm; w: 35 cm; d: 20 cm Date: 2002 Ownership and collection: Collection of the artist

42. Title: Ao Ñe´é (The Language of Clothes) Artist: Marité Zaldívar (María Teresa Carolina Zaldívar Rolón) Medium: Carved porongos (gourds) and karandá fabric Dimensions: h: 1.25 m; w: 39 cm; d: 25cm Date: 2002 Ownership and collection: Collection of the artist

From the artist Lucy Yegros

45. Title: Apyka Jejuhu (Encounter of Seats) Artist: Lucy Yegros (M. M. Luciana Yegros) Medium: Mixed media on wood Dimensions: h: 1.24 m; w: 1.05 m; d: 3 cm Date: 1987 Ownership and collection: Private collection, Asunción, Paraguay Description: Contemporary art piece inspired in Guaraní formal and visual elements.

46. Title: Paí Tavytera Altar Artist: Unknown, with intervention by Lucy Yegros (M. M. Luciana Yegros) Medium: Wood, gourds, sticks and rope Dimensions: h: 1.50 m; w: 38 cm; d: 17 cm Date: 20th century Ownership and collection: Private collection of Ms. Lucy Yegros, Asunción, Paraguay Description: This is a replica of the Paí Tavytera altar.

47. Title: Apyka (Seat) Artist: Lucy Yegros (M. M. Luciana Yegros) Medium: Mixed media on wood Dimensions: h: 41 cm; w: 89 cm; d: 60 cm Date: 1990 Ownership and collection: Private Collection, Asunción, Paraguay Description: Contemporary art piece inspired in Guaraní formal and visual elements.

48. Title: Untitled Artist: Juan Aníbal Britos Basualdo, photographer, b. Asunción, Paraguay, 1967 Medium: photograph Dimensions: 61 x 76 cm Date: 2002 Ownership and collection: Private collection Description: Aché people, town of Puerto Barra, Paraguay.

49. Title: Untitled Artist: Juan Aníbal Britos Basualdo, photographer, b. Asunción, Paraguay, 1967 Medium: photograph Dimensions: 61 x 76 cm Date: 2001 Ownership and collection: Private collection Description: Mbya people, Asunción, Paraguay.

50. Title: Untitled Artist: Juan Aníbal Britos Basualdo, photographer, b. Asunción, Paraguay, 1967 Medium: photograph Dimensions: 61 x 76 cm Date: 2001 Ownership and collection: Private collection Description: Mbya people, settlement of Ypaú Señorita, Paraguay.

51. Title: Untitled Artist: Juan Aníbal Britos Basualdo, photographer, b. Asunción, Paraguay, 1967 Medium: photograph Dimensions: 61 x 76 cm Date: 2001 Ownership and collection: Private collection Description: Mbya people, town of Campo 9, Paraguay.

52. Title: Untitled Artist: Juan Aníbal Britos Basualdo, photographer, b. Asunción, Paraguay, 1967 Medium: photograph Dimensions: 61 x 76 cm Date: 2001 Ownership and collection: Private collection Description: Mbya people, town of Luque, Paraguay.

53. Title: Untitled Artist: Juan Aníbal Britos Basualdo, photographer, b. Asunción, Paraguay, 1967 Medium: photograph Dimensions: 61 x 76 cm Date: 1993 Ownership and collection: Private collection Description: Mbya people, Yaguary, Paraguay.

Photos and Videos

54. Title: Untitled Artist: Juan Aníbal Britos Basualdo, photographer, b. Asunción, Paraguay, 1967 Medium: photograph Dimensions: 61 x 76 cm Date: 2001 Ownership and collection: Private collection Description: Mbya people, settlement of Ypaú Señorita, Paraguay.

55. Title: Untitled Artist: Juan Aníbal Britos Basualdo, photographer, b. Asunción, Paraguay, 1967 Medium: photograph Dimensions: 61 x 76 cm Date: 2001 Ownership and collection: Private collection Description: Mbya people, town of Nueva Esperanza, Paraguay.

56. Title: Reﬂejos de la esencia Aché (Reﬂections of the Aché People) Artist: Bjarne Fostervold, photographer, b. Cochabamba, Bolivia, 1958 Medium: photograph Dimensions: 94 x 125 cms Date: n/a Ownership and collection: Private collection Description: Aché young man, town of Puerto Barra, Departamento Alto Paraná, Paraguay.

57. Title: Reﬂejos de la esencia Aché (Reﬂections of the Aché People) Artist: Bjarne Fostervold, photographer, b. Cochabamba, Bolivia, 1958 Medium: photograph Dimensions: 125 x 94 cms Date: n/a Ownership and collection: Private collection Description: Aché child, town of Puerto Barra, Departamento Alto Paraná, Paraguay.

58. Title: Reﬂejos de la esencia Aché (Reﬂections of the Aché People) Artist: Bjarne Fostervold, photographer, b. Cochabamba, Bolivia, 1958 Medium: photograph Dimensions: 94 1/2 x 125 cms Date: n/a Ownership and collection: Private collection Description: town of Puerto Barra, Departamento Alto Paraná, Paraguay.

59. Title: Reﬂejos de la esencia Aché (Reﬂections of the Aché people) Artist: Bjarne Fostervold, photographer, b. Cochabamba, Bolivia, 1958 Medium: photograph Dimensions: 125 x 94 1/2 cms Date: n/a Ownership and collection: Private collection Description: Aché people, town of Puerto Barra, Departamento Alto Paraná, Paraguay

60. Title: Reﬂejos de la esencia Aché (Reﬂections of the Aché People) Artist: Bjarne Fostervold, photographer, b. Cochabamba, Bolivia, 1958 Medium: photograph Dimensions: 115 x 94 cms Date: n/a Ownership and collection: Private collection Description: Aché family, town of Puerto Barra, Departamento Alto Paraná, Paraguay.

61. Title: Reﬂejos de la esencia Aché (Reﬂections of the Aché People) Artist: Bjarne Fostervold, photographer, b. Cochabamba, Bolivia, 1958, Paraguay, 19.. Medium: photograph Dimensions: 94 x 114 1/2 cms Date: n/a Ownership and collection: Private collection Description: Aché child, town of Puerto Barra, Departamento Alto Paraná, Paraguay.

62. Title: Reﬂejos de la esencia Aché (Reﬂections of the Aché People) Artist: Bjarne Fostervold, photographer, b. Cochabamba, Bolivia, 1958Medium: photograph Dimensions: 116 x 96 cms Date: n/a Ownership and collection: Private collection Description: Aché man, town of Puerto Barra, Departamento Alto Paraná, Paraguay.

63. Title: Reﬂejos de la esencia Aché (Reﬂections of the Aché People) Artist: Bjarne Fostervold, photographer, b. Cochabamba, Bolivia, 1958Medium: photograph Dimensions: 94 x 115 1/2 cms Date: n/a Ownership and collection: Private collection

65. Title: Arete Guasu (Carnaval Indígena) Artist: Pedro Ramírez González; camera and script: Pedro Ramírez González; editor: Eugenio Martínez; and production assistants: Amapola Samaniego and Mónica Chaparro Medium: DVD Length: 31 minutes Date: 1997 Ownership and collection: Teleducación, Ministry of Education and Culture, Asunción, Paraguay Description: Illustrates the chiriguano ritual, performed at the Paraguayan Chaco, in honor of Tupâ, the God of the natives.

64. Title: EMUHNO (The Creation of the World) Artist: Augusto Netto Sisa, with the collaboration of Flavia Netto, Rafael Kohan and Jose Pedersen (SEVOI Films); e-mail: agu_ns@ hotmail.com Medium: DVD Pal Animation Length: 3 ft. 20 in. Date: Paraguay, 2004 Ownership and collection: Collection of the Inter-American Development Bank Cultural Center Description: IDB Cultural Center II Inter-American Biennial of Video Art, First prize (ex aequo). The creation of the world is explained with drawings by a shaman of the Tomaraho community, in the Northern part of the Chaco region, Paraguay. The video captures a limpid and unspoiled vision of the indigenous universe, and views the origins of life as a gift from the cosmic forces that granted man and everything else on earth the gift of existence, and made humans accountable for their destiny.

Acknowledgments The IDB Cultural Center would like to thank all persons and institutions in Paraguay who helped make this exhibition possible, especially: Her Excellency Leila Rachid Cowles, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Asunción, Paraguay; Orlando Ferrero Caballero, Alternate Executive Director for Paraguay at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB); His Excellency James Spalding, Ambassador of Paraguay to the White House, Washington DC; Alejandra Artigas and Tania Plate, Cultural Officers, Cultural Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,Museo Lítco de la Misión Jesuítica de los Guaraníes de la Santísima Trinidad; Museo Arqueológico y Entográfico Guido Boggiani, San Lorenzo; Centro de Artes Visuales/Mueso del Barro, Asunción; Carlos Colombiano Lailla Foundation, Asunción; Mueso Nacional de Bellas Artes, Asunción; Asociación Faro para las Artes in Asunción; Ysanne Gayet, in Areguá; photographers Juan Aní Britos Basualdo and Bjarne Fostervold; and artists Marité Zaldívar and Lucy Yegros. The Cultural Center is also grateful to Alvaro Cubillos, IDB Representative in Asunción; and to Marta Maldonado de Corvalán, EXR Officer at the IDB Representation in Asunción.

Inter-American Development Bank Cultural Center Art Gallery 1300 New York Avenue, N.W. Tel. 202 623 3774 - Fax 202 623 3192 e-mail IDBCC@iadb.org www.iadb.org/cultural