Claudia Martínez Garay
Intrusos en sus tierras
2024 | risographs on 140 gram Fedrigoni | 113 × 183.5 cm
‘Intrusos en sus tierras’ translates to ‘intruders on their lands’. The heritage of her country’s colonial past is very important in Claudia Martínez Garay’s work. With these eight colorful graphic works, Martínez Garay undermines the history of the Andes region as told in Western school books.
The uppermost work shows a depiction of Tupac Amaru II, a native leader who led the Andes uprising against the Spanish occupation. A white hand with a pencil hovers over the portrait. The simplistic illustration of it contrasts starkly with the beautifully detailed portrait. It seems like the hand is trying to rewrite the story of Amaru in particular and the Andes history in general: a white, Western lens that could never tell the rich and complex tales like the native inhabitants can. It’s not the place of the colonizer, nor of their offspring, to try and do so. This history belongs to the descendants of native Andes ancestors, like Martínez Garay herself.
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