Ecuador, an exceptional biodiversity
The Centro interamericano de Artes Populares - Cidap (Cuenca, Ecuador) is an institution that promotes, preserves and revalorizes the crafts, popular art and culture of the Americas. With 47 years of experience, Cidap is the third oldest institution of its kind on the continent and works closely with craftsmen in their environment. For this first participation in Revelations 2023, the Cidap stages the biodiversity of Ecuador by a selection of craft works, exceptional in Europe, witnesses of the sincere synergy between Mankind and Nature.
Ecuador, in addition to being a multicultural and multi-ethnic nation, is one of the twenty mega-diverse countries in the world. Due to its geographical location, the presence of the Andes Mountains and the strong influence of ocean currents, the country has four regions: The Coast, The Mountain, The East and the Galapagos. The diversity of the biomes favors the multiplicity of raw materials used by the different communities to produce works of art, whose selection for Revelations represents for Ecuador and its craft workshops a magnificent opportunity to share the transmission of these unique creative territories in the world.
The biodiversity of Ecuador and its four regions permeates the works in this selection, which sounds like a call to reconnect with Nature. The forest, the snow-capped mountains and the ocean, suppliers of natural resources and identity, are also at the heart of the artistic paths of these creators, holders of ancestral know-how, respectful of their environment through the use of local raw materials.
Pamela Suasti explores the Amazon jungle through her creations in felt woven with vegetable fibers. Andrés Aguirre sculpts a metal flora echoing the richness of the geobotanical reserve of Pululahua, located in the Ecuadorian Sierra. Damian Sinchi transcribes the musicality and rhythms of the Coast and Galapagos regions through his wooden sculptures. Finally, the Kichwa craftswomen, from the Canelo Kichwa people, give shape and color to their cosmovision and traditions with the mukawas, ceramics painted with their own hair.
A plural collection that testifies to the richness of Ecuador's intangible and creative heritage.
