A powerful jaw, Piercing eyes, A camouflage spotted like skin. Here before us is the God Jaguar, supreme master of the Latin American continent. From the forests of Mexico to the Brazilian marshlands, through the irrigated lands of the Argentinean province, his territory knows no boundaries of men. He feels at home everywhere and takes care of anyone who violates this indescribable law. However, his life hangs by a thread, or rather by a chainsaw blade that blindly deprives him of his habitat and his pantry. But let's go back to the origins, to the source of his former absolute power.
The Aztecs saw the Jaguar as a symbol of supreme strength and courage, and believed that the Sun God assumed the appearance of this feline to travel through the world of the dead after dark. Sometimes the embodiment of power, sometimes the divine messenger, the jaguar is undoubtedly the most important sacred animal of the pre-Columbian cosmogony.
In the face of threats, the noble jaguar, on the other hand, faithful to the call of his land, his lands, continued to shape his feline gait by following in the footsteps of his ancestors and taking the same route: the jaguar's route. Only he can guide us through the tangles of Mexico, prevent us from being swallowed up by the thirsty meanders of the Amazon, from drying out under the suffocating atmosphere of the Gran Chaco. Delayed, of course, the governments of all the countries he freely travels on his noble journey have finally decided to make him their guide and give him back the place he deserves in their respective cultures. And to give him back his place, the rulers have signed several agreements aimed at promoting environmental protection, since the early 2000s. These initiatives are there to remind us of what the Jaguar represents to hundreds of millions of Latin Americans, but also to determine the place it should occupy in their spiritual and cultural life.
Following these cultural initiatives, besides demonstrating, once again, the links between art and nature, would allow, if only for a few moments, to rediscover the environment only known by the jaguar's guardian, until now.
Jaguar Art offers to guide you, week after week, in an exploration of the museums and cultural centers installed along this new jaguar route; these spaces shed light on the links between art and nature and allow you to explore the particularities of this relationship, both from a cultural and environmental point of view. All we have to do is tell them: follow the route and we'll see you next week.
Art centres
FLORA space for contemporary art in Colombia
Centro de Arte los Galpones in Venezuela
Art residency "Satélite" in Ecuador
Artist Residency in the Peruvian Amazon