Máhcaheapmi (Responses) #1: Residency in Cherán K’eri
The first iteration of Máhcaheapmi (Responses) took place in April – May 2024 in Mexico, on the lands of the P'urehpecha nation. 'Practices of Sovereignty.
Art and Resistance in the Sámi and P'urehpecha Nations' was a collaboration between Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC) and the Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA), bringing together discussions and artistic practices from the Sámi and P'urehpecha nations.
The residency took place on P’urhepecha land, what is known as Cherán K’eri in the State of Michoacán, Mexico, hosted by the artist group Colectivo Cherani, a local group of P’urhepecha artists. In 2011, their community rose up to regain control of their own territory from organized crime-backed loggers and corrupt politicians. After this event, Colectivo Cherani has been committed to the fight through art-making as a way of community organizing, preserving memory, and building shared knowledge and collective responsibility in public space. Their artistic practice is interdisciplinary, rooted in the P’urhepecha culture. Cherán K’eri has since 2011 developed their own indigenous political self-determination with a High Council.
MUAC has been collaborating with Colectivo Cherani since 2020, and in 2021 commissioned a piece that explored the venture their community has embarked upon from a variety of perspectives, articulated as a mosaic of images and allegories. In the continued conversations with the Colectivo Cherani and following MUAC’s research trip to Sápmi in 2022, the idea emerged to connect the work of Colectivo Cheran with Sámi artists and create a platform to share pursuits of art-making as a defense of natural resources and Indigenous knowledge and sovereignty.
Alain Silva Guardián in conversation with Eva Maria Fjellheim and Geir Tore Holm
Bethel Cucué explaining one of her works.
Participants from the Sámi nation include: Tomas Colbengtson, Eva Maria Fjellheim, Geir Tore Holm, Elina Waage Mikalsen and Máret Ánne Sara.
Representatives from Sámi-led art institutions:
Petra Laiti/Sámi Council, Sajje Solbakk/Riddu Riđđu Festival, Anne May Olli/RiddoDuottarMusea and Dine Arnannguaq Fenger Lynge/Dáiddadallu [Sámi Artist Network].
Participants from the P'urehpecha nation include: Colectivo Cherani (Bethel Cucué, Giovanni Fabián, Francisco Huaroco, Ariel Pañeda Macías, Alain Silva Guardián).
Residency encounters
The Sámi delegation travelled in Michoacán for 10 days, with the longest element of the residency taking place in an extended period in Cherán K’eri hosted by Colectivo Cherani.
The Sámi and P’urhepecha participants engaged in a series of dialogues and exchanges, with the help of translators, exploring connections and differences between their cultures and struggles. The delegation visited the studio of Ariel Pañeda Macías, member of Colectivo Cherani, where some of the traditions and customs from the P'urehpecha nation where explained.
The delegation had the opportunity to visit the Museo del Bosque (Forest Museum), located in the forest of Cherán, a series of outdoor sculptures by Colectivo Cherani where the collective memory of the uprising is preserved. The museum uses the remains of the trucks belonging to illegal loggers that were seized and burned by the community members in the early hours of April 15th, 2011.
The exchange of experiences between the Sámi and P'urehpecha participants was an ongoing process, which extended beyond the organised programme of the residency into the time spent together at meals and other moments of spontaneous exchange. The days in Cherán culminated with a screening and performance in an old quarry outside the town, with video works from artists from the P'urehpecha nation as well as a DJ set by delegation member Petra Laiti.
Bethel Cucué in front of her intervention.
DJ set by Petra Laiti.
Before leaving Cherán, the delegation visited Colectivo Cherani’s member Francisco Huaroco’s house and studio, where the two nations made an exchange of flags.
Yásnaya Elena Aguilar Gil and Tajëëw Díaz Robles
Back in Mexico City, linguist and activist Yásnaya Elena Aguilar Gil, as well as anthropologist and activist Tajëëw Díaz Robles joined the group and talked, together with all the participants, about food resistance, land, and food sovereignity, focused on the case of the milpa [cornfield] located in the periphery of the city, where the group had a shared meal hosted by the padagogical project Calpulli Tecalco and Colectivo Amasijo.
On April 30th the Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC) hosted the public conference “Stories of the Blue Night. Sámi, P’urhepecha and Ayuujk Art and Culture Forum”, dedicated to the thought, activism and artistic production of the Sámi people.
