Bartolina Xixa
Ramita Seca, 2019

Artist
Bartolina Xixa

Title
Ramita Seca. La Colonialidad Permanente

Year of creation
2019

Technology and duration
HD video, color, sound, 5′07″ Ed. 1/5 + 2 AP

Year of acquisition
2020

Acquisition of the foundation

Bartolina Xixa, who appears as a drag queen, is a homage to the Bolivian revolutionary leader Bartolina Sisa Vargas (approx. 1750–1782), a woman from the indigenous Aymara ethnic group who, together with her husband Túpac Katari (approx. 1750–1781), lived in the 18th century. fought against the colonial occupation of what is now Peru and Bolivia and was ultimately executed by Spanish troops. In the persona of Bartolina Xixa, Mamani critically addresses issues such as gender stereotypes, colonialism, racism, environmental destruction and illegal land grabs in Latin America.

In the video Ramita Seca, La Colonialidad Permanente (German: Dry Branch. The Permanent Coloniality), Xixa, dressed in traditional robes, dances in the middle of a garbage dump. The music and lyrics come from folk singer Aldana Bello. “We are the garbage that this hygienic and well-kept world does not want to see. “We are the ones who pay the ecological debts of those who consume us and gain even more power from it,” it says at the end of the haunting song. Drawing on the traditional Argentine form of “Vidala”, a folkloric dance accompanied by singing, Xixa creates an image of rebellion against exploitation in the former colonies. The video was shot in the Quebrada de Humahuaca valley in Jujuy province, a region where local indigenous peoples were denied visibility and access to resources for centuries and which was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2003.

- gk