Name: Tequendama
Size: 103 x 130 cm
Medium: Acrylic, collage and lithography on fabric
Year: 2023
On the outskirts of Colombia’s capital, the Bogotá River drops 132 meters into the Tequendama waterfall. This area is one of the two oldest human settlements in the country. In Muysccubun, the language of the indigenous Muisca people, Tequendama means “the one that rushes down”. Muisca history recounts that Bochica was the man who taught them metalworking and agriculture as well as solidarity and generosity. A woman named Huitaca opposed these teachings and made the people selfish. The creator gods were enraged and flooded the region. Bochica appeared and struck the earth with his golden rod and broke the mountain range so that the water of the Bogota River flowed down the waterfall, saving the people.
On this acrylic painting I stamped lithographs that replicate two goldsmith pieces made in pre-Hispanic times. These pieces are part of the exhibition at the Gold Museum in Bogota. In the upper part I portray a piece hammered in tumbaga (gold and copper alloy), which in this work represents the rebel goddess Huitaca. In the lower right part I include the image of a piece with the embossed face of a shaman which represents the civilizing god Bochica in this piece . These two Muisca deities confront each other in this composition of the oneiric landscape of the Salto del Tequendama.
