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Lukas Avendaño & Magdalena Wiener

Del territorio a la accesoriedad

From territory to accessorization. Reflections on the Tehuana dress in communality.

The following conversation between Lukas Avendaño and Magdalena Wiener stems from an open research program at the Research Center for Material Culture Leiden that started in 2017 with the title "Un/engendering the collection" and proposes to rethink and contest imaginaries about gender and sexuality connected to objects and collections in ethnographic museums. By tracing the history and contemporary context of object creation and use we complicate those imaginaries that are dominated by the white, male, patriarchal gaze that are perpetuated to this day. In response to taxonomies that divide objects and lives into simplified dualities, binaries that do not recognize the complexities of the cultural contexts out of which they emerge, in this conversation we will start from the object and the lived experience that unfolds within/through and around it. How does the Tehuana dress, its creation and its use articulate, undermine or complicate the ideas we have about the bodies that wear and embody it?

Now, we’re setting up the frame and we begin to weave. The shades, shadows, knots and shapes that unfold during our conversation reflect the complexity of the historical, political, economic and social framework in which not only gender is invented. To note, we do not perceive this talk as conclusive, in any way. These are personal reflections, which invite you to think and reconsider, and thus perhaps facilitate a sense of “conocer,” of knowing, in ways otherwise.

Aproximaciones al traje de Tehuana en comunalidad

La siguiente conversación con Lukas Avendaño nace a partir de una investigación abierta del Research Center for Material Culture Leiden que empezó en 2017 con el título “Un/engendering the collection” y propone repensar y contestar imaginarios sobre género y sexualidad conectados con los objetos y colecciones en museos etnográficos. Al rastrear la historia y el contexto contemporáneo de la creación y el uso del objeto complicamos aquellos imaginarios que están dominados por la mirada blanca, masculina y patriarcal que se perpetúan hasta el día de hoy. Contestando a una clasificación que divide objetos y vidas en dualidades simplificadas, que no reconoce la complejidad de los contextos culturales en donde nacen, en está conversación partimos del objeto y de la experiencia. ¿Cómo articula, socava o complica el vestido de Tehuana, su creación y uso, las ideas que tenemos sobre los cuerpos que lo visten y encarnan?

Armamos el bastidor y empezamos a tejer. Los matices, las sombras, los nudos y las formas que se van desdoblando reflejan el entramado histórico, político, económico y social que nos llevan a hablar de mucho más que la invención de género. Cabe mencionar que nosotras no percibimos esta plática de ninguna forma conclusiva. Son reflexiones personales que invitan a conocer, pensar y reconsiderar.

We publish these articles as the museums consolidate into one nominal entity, het Wereldmuseum: since the articles were written between 2020 and 2023, they do not yet reflect the March 2023 name change. 

All contributors called into the Un/Engendering research project were asked to think outside their respective specializations. Without their courage, openness, humility, and without the peer reviewers’ generous attention, such an interdisciplinary project could have never taken place.

Image above: Lukas Avendaño, Foto Performance © Mario Patiño. 

Introduction and initial inquiries.

Author | Lukas Avendaño

Lukas Avendaño (1977) is a member of the Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte, one of the most esteemed recognitions that Mexico grants to its artists. He is recognized for his engagement and contributions to questions of ethnicity, gender, sexuality and human rights within the Mexican public sphere and beyond. Some of his choreographic works, to which he refers to as “applied anthropology on stage” (2001) are: “El Corrral (2001), “Madame Gabia” (2005), “Réquiem Para un Caraván” (2012), “I am not a person. I am a Butterfly” (2014), and “Searching for Bruno” (2018). Currently, he is developing the play “Xibalbay”. Lukas’s work has been presented in more than 25 international festivals abroad, and at leading Mexican universities. His work opens up spaces for reflection and non-hegemonic epistemologies, starting from nomenclatures such as “emperramiento,” “archeology of memory,” “installation for the human body” and/or “performativity of everyday life.” Avendaño will perform in the Holland Festival 2023.

 

Lukas Avendaño (1977) es miembro del Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte, uno de los máximos reconocimientos que México otorga a sus artistas. A Lukas se le reconoce su aportación a la escena mexicana en los temas de etnicidad, género, sexualidad y los Derechos Humanos. Algunas de sus obras coreográficas – a lo que él se refiere como “antropología aplicada a la escenificación” – son: “El Corral” (2001), “Madame Gabia´” (2005), “Réquiem Para un Alcaraván” (2012), “No Soy Persona. Soy Mariposa” (2014), “Buscando a Bruno” (2018) y actualmente trabaja en la obra “Xibalbay”. Su obra se ha presentado en más de 25 festivales internacionales en el extranjero, así como en las principales universidades de México; su obra inaugura espacios de reflexión y epistemologías no hegemónicas desde nomenclaturas como “el emperramiento”, “arqueología de la memoria”, “Instalación para Cuerpo Humano” y/o performatividad de la cotidianidad”. Lukas Avendaño presentará una obra coreográfica en el Holland Festival 2023.

Bio image: LUKAS © Miguel J. Crespo

Avendaño bio photo

Author | Magdalena Wiener

Magdalena Wiener es curadora y coordinadora de proyectos artísticos y culturales con sede en Ámsterdam y Berlín. Ha trabajado varios años como Gerente de Artes en el Haus der Kulturen der Welt en Berlín, antes de incorporarse al Goethe-Institut en México, donde fue coordinadora del Programa de Artes Visuales del Año Dual Alemania-México 2016-2017. En el 2018 fue curadora invitada para la exposición México Textil en el Museo de Arte Popular de la Ciudad de México.  Interesada en acercamientos interdisciplinares y translocales, Magdalena enfoca su trabajo en la creación de vínculos, y en la generación de plataformas de intercambio y prácticas colectivas. Actualmente es curadora e investigadora asociada al Research Center for Material Culture, Leiden, y trabaja como coordinadora de programas en la fundación Spore Initiative Berlin. 

Magdalena Wiener is a curator and coordinator of arts and cultural projects based in Amsterdam and Berlin. She has worked for several years as arts manager at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, before joining the Goethe-Institut in Mexico, where she was the coordinator of the Visual Arts program of the Dual Year Germany-Mexico 2016-2017. In 2018 she was guest curator for the exhibition México Textil at the Museo de Arte Popular in Mexico City. Interested in interdisciplinary and translocal approaches, Magdalena focuses in her work on creating connections and generating platforms for exchange and collective practices. She is an associate curator and researcher at the Research Center for Material Culture, Leiden, and currently works as program coordinator at the Spore Initiative foundation in Berlin. 

MW

Download article | Del territorio a la accesoriedad

Avendaño & Wiener April 2023.pdf

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