Talk by María Suárez at the symposium Postcolonial Hauntologies: Art in the Presence-Absence of the Past, Amsterdam 5 March 2025
Abstract
This paper analyzes Tierra, Conejos y Orígenes by Colombian artist Estefanía García Pineda, exploring how it engages with the past through the figure of the spirit. Originally created for an exhibition on Colombia’s 2021 social uprising, the work instead highlights the enduring resistance of Indigenous peoples in the Cauca region. Combining installation and performance, García Pineda uses the rabbit as a symbol of modernity’s colonial spirit and enacts its decolonization, guided by human and non-human elders like the coca plant. The performance incorporates Indigenous language and ritual to “revitalize memory to recover the land.” Drawing on Colin Sterling’s hauntology as a method for approaching heritage practices and Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò’s concept of the ancestor, the paper argues that ancestral heritage functions as a reparative force, enabling art to confront colonial wounds and envision a more just future.
Image credit:
Tierra conejos y orígenes, 2022
Video instalación y acción con mambe
Mambe, tierra, hojas de coca y elementos animales
Critical Heritage Ecologies 