Julieth Morales

Silvia, Colombia (1992)                                                                                                                                                                     

La señorita (2019)

serigraphy on a female Misak shawl

Julieth Morales defines herself as a Misak artist by birth and mestiza by context. Her work challenges the representations of the indigenous subject which since the end of the 19th century has constituted the image of a Colombian nation. Morales does not conform to what was proposed by the indigenist movement in the 1930’s which sought to “return to the roots” to find a common past to give a sense of belonging to the people after a century of independence, nor with the ethnographic portraits that showed the indigenous subject frozen in time. It also moves away from the exoticism with which some contemporary artists are treated, where naivety and the “different worldview” become sufficient reasons to consecrate a work. Being part of the Misak people, who have been leading political struggles since the end of the 20th century to actively participate in national construction, Morales is part of a generation of indigenous professionals who transit between urban and rural areas and who by their own decision are resignifying the past to oppose the current economic system that is characterized by its extractive and individualistic practices that are not sustainable. 

NA VERY PIRØ WAN WØTØTRANTRAP SRØTØPA (Recover the land to recover everything) is a slogan of the Misak people that emerged in 1980 when they were structured as a social movement in order to reconquer their lands seized by the independence hero Matías Fajardo. The Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC), founded in 1971, became a political movement after participating in the 1991 National Constituent Assembly in which they managed to reclaim the land constitutionally. Morales was born in Silvia, Cauca in 1992. She has inherited these struggles and updates the mechanisms to continue recovering everything , pointing out the underlying heteropatriarchal structures in both indigenous and mestizo culture. Her analysis started from the individual, using her own body as the medium for her first actions. She currently performs collective actions with members of her community and others, moving away from the artist's modern idea as a genius and understanding herself as a platform that is built from its relationship with others. 

For this section on performance we are interested in talking with Judith Butler's concept of performativity, understanding gender as a series of practices and constructions rather than as something given and static. This same notion can be applied to understand contemporary indigenous identity, which is being built and configured in the context of current discussions. Julieth's work not only uses performance as a means, the performative is manifested in her reinterpretations of the Misak rituals that are the heart of her practice. 

-Curriculum-