Visitor Talk: Ana Cielo Quiñones

Abstract:

Arts, crafts, and design are concepts delimited by processes derived from western culture and history. The traditional material creations from the Pueblos Indígenas (indigenous communities) of Latin America have been classified in such categories, disregarding their ontologies, conceptualizations, native classes, and voices. We look at the ontological dualism of modernity derived from the rationalist tradition that separates nature from culture, souls from bodies, humans from nonhumans, life from non-life; conveying a universe and a vision of the world that Escobar named Mundo Único. In contrast, the ontological premises of the Pueblos Indígenas, known as “relational ontologies,” in which the biophysical worlds, humans, and supernaturals are not regarded as separate entities but bounded with continuity links. In this talk, we will get closer to the Pueblo Aruaco, one of the four Pueblos from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia, whose culture is grounded in a relational ontology that supports their cosmogony, traditional material creations, and forms of being. Aruaco’s worldview brings hope for life as a whole.

Bio:

Associate professor, Design department, School of Architecture and Design. Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. Bogotá, Colombia.

Co-author of seven books: Human Geography of Colombia (Volume 1), Reflections about crafts and design in Colombia, Conspiring with craftsmen: Critique and proposal to design for crafts, Socially responsible design: ideology and participation, Among suns and armantes: participatory design and crafts in Valle de Tenza, The schools of arts and métiers in Colombia 1860-1960 (Volume I and II), and Creation worldviews of indigenous communities from Latin America. Prof. Quiñones holds a Magister in Latinoamerican History from Universidad de Anadalucía, Huelva, Spain. BFA in Industrial Design from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. Bogotá, Colombia. Post-graduate diploma in Human-rights from the Association of Universities Entrusted to the Society of Jesus in Latin America and the Institute of Social and Cultural Studies Pensa