YASHINGO
2017
video, color, sound, loop

Yashingo is one of the main amazonian gods who is responsible for one’s trip to the jungle. mostly considered as a masculine figure. one need to offer him tobacco (mapacho) and local alcohol to get a good vibes and survive the trip. it is also considered as a ghost which uses its voice to make women (only) get lost in the amazon jungle.


What does it mean to be on the other side of the globe? What does it mean to be on the other side of the forest, of the country, of the room?
I am trying to put the words and images into a completely different meaning. I am trying to decontextualize them as it is finally becoming something new, something that haven’t been there before. By combining voice with moving images I am trying to communicate using seemingly misguided forms. So, basically, I am trying to create the narration that is provoking to ask yourself the questions that you, most probably, haven’t been asked before.
While spending a month in Peruvian Amazon, I got to know the culture, the people and the nature. I created a piece that was based on my experiences in the indigenous village. I payed the man, who became my friend, to build a traditional raft for me, so I can analyze the process and use it for my performance. The artwork at the beginning was suppose to be something completely different, I put into a different context. After I came back to Prague and discussed my work with the studio group, I learnt that the work hasn’t been seen here that clearly. I heard several opinions about my colonial approach that I have never had in mind before facing the group in Prague. That is why I decided to analyze the role of a comer, the role of person who comes to the place with the will of doing something. I question the stereotypes that are not even fully realized in the society. In the example of European woman traveling in South American country, I try to analyze the phenomenon of unwittingness among Western Societies. The work is meant to question what was not questioned before as well as to realize the botched behavior. As I experienced that myself, as well as most of the artists who were there with me, I decided that it is a really important aspect of getting to know the culture and trying to learn something or inspire yourself.
The piece is based on three basic elements that may seem not to have anything in common: video documentation of man named Don Pablo building a raft in the Amazon Jungle, performance that I have done there using the raft built by him and the voice over that was recorded already in Prague, after I came back from the residency. All of it put together is building the new narration and the transparency of the video with performance is also putting there a new context. Firstly, I was trying to make the installation using all of the material by itself, but by merging it I am questioning it, putting it into an unobvious form.
In the first part I am trying to question the role of the artist. What would be a definition of an artist for you, for us? How do we know exactly what is the artist suppose to do? In the piece I am trying to question what has already been said as a fact, something you can’t deny. On the other hand, there is still a space for multiple answers. What I am suggesting and trying to show is - think about it more than twice. Think about what you see and why you see it in this specific shape.


We come somewhere, so we are just the comers. We do not know anything about the surrounding. How would we get to know it without intervening it? How to avoid the stereotypes, how to avoid the judgment? How to realize that our social roles are changing when we travel? On the other side of the globe we might be the most privileged creatures.