Dave Wurtzel
/
Connecticut Public
Artifacts that represent a “universal” Latin American kitchen at The Wadsworth museum in Hartford, CT. December 5, 2024
Healing and reclamation through art
Efforts that bring about this kind of recollection in community is the goal of the Buen Vivir and Collective Healings Initiative at UConn, of which Abadía-Barrero is the director.
The initiative aims to help communities heal from colonial wounds, a term that Abadía-Barrero said refers to the wounds that were inflicted during the colonial invasions of the Americas. Through community-based efforts, the intention is to reclaim all that has been lost and bring it all back to life, he said.
“For a lot of women of the collective, they have never been at a museum and they were absolutely thrilled and excited to see their art, to see themselves on display, to see themselves as artists and to be acknowledged by the museum,” Abadía-Barrero said.
“I think that’s going back to the colonial healing idea. I think this brought back not only a sense of identity, but a sense of pride in who they are and what they represent and what they can bring to society, even more so in times that we’re entering that are going to be very threatening and dark,” he said.
Under the direction of visiting UConn professor and artist/curator Francisco Huichaqueo, the installation was complemented with artwork and artifacts from the Wadsworth collection, representing Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America.
Huichaqueo has a strong interest in connecting the creation of art with culture, particularly Indigenous Latin American cultures. He identifies as Mapuche, the largest indigenous population in Chile. When working on this project, he said he incorporated the pieces of Abiayala to highlight the ancestral connections to these lands.
Dave Wurtzel
/
Connecticut Public
César Abadía-Barrero, associate professor of anthropology at UConn at the Wadsworth Museum. December 5, 2024
Speaking to Hartford with their ‘hands, labor and art’
Arte Popular’s contribution to the exhibition invites local residents to see the people who are living in their city and contributing to their community, Huichaqueo said.
“[The project], in a way, illuminated the city of Hartford, because we put a spotlight on a group that was invisible,” Huichaqueo said in Spanish.
For the women of Arte Popular, the beauty in the project was in remembering their childhoods and their homelands, according to Pineda, the group’s coordinator.
“The project was very beautiful because it made us remember details that our day-to-day lives made us forget, or memories that were always there, but just hadn’t resurfaced yet,” she said in Spanish.
It also sends a message, she said, that immigrants can be recognized for their work and be respected as both artists and hard-working members of society.
Though they may struggle to speak the language, she said, they can and have always communicated with their hands through their labor and their art.
Learn more
The Entre Mundos exhibition is on display at the Wadsworth Atheneum through Sunday, Dec. 15.
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Publish date : 2024-12-09 09:08:00
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