TARAHUMARA PROJECT

TARAHUMARA PROJECT

(2024, Spain/Mexico, 7min) video installation

“Happiness consists of being still. It is accomplished only when your heart is in harmony with your the thoughts that live in your forehead and the body that you inhabit in this life.” [Quetzalcoatl Has Spoken] Tarahumara Project presents a contemporary view on legendary people in America as they face modern elements in a desert landscape. It’s a portrait of an enigmatic pueblo known in the world as unique runners. [IMDb]

SYNOPSIS Tarahumara Project is a look at the soul. A recollction of hidden memories. Father, mother, daughter, son, and grandmother enter the scene to establish a rare dialogue with television monitors in the middle of a desert of rocks. Images of the elements (earth, air, water, fire) appear as an invasion of modern times into their ancient way of life. Tarahumara are Native American people of Northwestern Mexico who are renowned for their long-distance running ability. Originally inhabitants of much of Chihuahua State, the Rarámuri retreated to the Copper Canyon in the Sierra Madre Occidental on the arrival of Spanish explorers in the 16th century. I IMDb

Tarahumara is the Spanish name for rarámuri: running foot or the ones with light feet. It’s one of the pre-Hispanic pueblos that keeps its traditions due to a stiff geography and an indomitable character: they were never conquered. Tarahumara may have passed from Mongolia to America for the Bering Strait. The Jesuits registered contact in 1606 as they settled officially at the end of the 19th century. They celebrate their beliefs integrating Catholicism and Shamanism with dances, offers, and tesgüinadas (parties drinking corn beer). Women wear vivid colored blouses and skirts, showing a stronger anatomy than men.

“So many Tarahumara men, women, and children persist in distinctive, centuries-old cultural traditions in spite of their nearness to all the complexities and attractions of modern industrial society is an important part of the story.” [Tarahumara (1997) by Bernard L. Fontana/John P. Schaefer, The University of Arizona Press] “The Tarahumaras have been entering 100 mile races in hopes that people will hear of their tribe's plight and donate money to ease their situation in the rugged mountains of Chihuahua state.” [George Ramos, Los Angeles Times, 09/25/96] I LINKS Running Born to Run (2009) by Christopher McDougall, Knopf Ed. I Culture Britannica I Biomechanics Harvard University I Film University of California, Berkeley

Tarahumara

Antonin Artaud (1896-1948) is a French playwright, poet, essayist, actor, and theater director. Considered among the most influential figures in modern drama theory, Artaud was involved with Surrealist artists and experimental theater groups. In Theatre and Its Double (1938) Artaud looks at Eastern theater; and in Theatre of Cruelty (1932) presents "a primitive ceremonial experience intended to liberate the human subconscious and reveal man to himself." Artaud set the audience in the middle of the “spectacle” to be “engulfed and physically affected by it” using light, sound, and performance. His work influenced the Theater of the Absurd, Jean Genet, Samuel Beckett, and inspired contemporary arts. Artaud traveled to Mexico in 1936, stayed with the Tarahumara, and wrote Voyage to the Land of the Tarahumara. I LINKS Music: The Peyote Dance (2019) with Patti Smith I Art at MoMA I Antonin Artaud: Works on Paper (1996-1997) curated by Christina Houstian I Book: Selected Writings (1988) edited by Susan Sontag, University of California Press I Book: Artaud and After (1977) by Ronald Hayman, Oxford University Press I Book: México y Viaje al país de los tarahumaras (1984) by Antonin Artaud, FCE

Antonin Artaud

Tarahumara Project was produced in Sierra Tarahumara in Chihuahua State, Northern Mexico. A disruptive element comes through the presence of television monitors as in the work by video art pioneer Nam June Paik. Screens show (digital) images of natural elements in a natural environment. Although neither the apparatus nor the visuals alter the calm atmosphere. It’s conceived to be projected on (at least) four visual displays such as screens, monitors or walls. The classic film language is deconstructed since continuity style and conventional flow of shots size are broken. SCREEN 1 Family members and all family wide shot. SCREEN 2 Family members medium shot. SCREEN 3 Family members close up. SCREEN 4 Landscape.

Tarahumara Project is an interdisciplinary project that integrates film, photo, graphic design, visual art, music, writing, and performance as well as digital work including sites and social media. The three works of Multiple Portraits can be screened in different forms and spaces including one by one and altogether; independently and simultaneously; in screening rooms, art centers and/or online. It’s a trilogy of visual portraits: cinematic, in motion, multiple, and simultaneous. I Photo: Tarahumara family in Barrancas del Cobre (Copper Canyon). I Behance Tecnológico de Monterrey

Tarahumara Project is connected to Multiple Portraits and productions and online platforms. It’s a production with the support of the Tourism Board of Chihuahua State, and Tecnológico de Monterrey. The context is Tec21 Educational Model in the frame of Work Integrated Learning.

“The shape of ideas and plans of action are magically transformed when a work of art happens. After the turmoil of defiant roads, it’s incredible for all to bring what we’ve imagined to the world. And this time it was in unexpected Tarahumara hands. We spent time with this enigmatic people: looking, filming, talking, eating, and suffering the hard sunlight and resilient geography. We filmed two days with two families. The first one was extremely inhibited. The joint with the second family was the teenage daughter, Alma.

I was amazed by the contact with playful children around us. A little girl asked if I played games, grabbed the phone, and knew in a second that I didn’t. Under the shelter of a rock, I though that we aimed to bring modern technology as a disruptive devise to call the audience’s attention: following Antonin Artaud’s ideas. And guess what: kids master digital tools. For The Barbaric Country, historical nickname of Chihuahua State, I put on the table three ideas: to make a gigantic iconic figure in a football court (the prehistoric painting that looks like an astronaut); build a container-box full of balloons for a Samuel Beckett story; and Tarahumara Project. The visual idea was inspired by a flying angel with long wings and blue sky screened on his feet-monitors that I recalled from my early years as theater writer in Madrid.

If Eugenio Valles and María José Valles, who have worked with communities, wouldn’t had supported the suggestion I wouldn’t had even tried. We also discussed the idea with Enrique Servín, expert on native cultures who spoke twelve languages. In Tecnológico de Monterrey, Virginia Aceves is the driving force of ventures, and Isaac Estrella was key in postproduction. Mario Gutiérrez camera was an untiring and precise razor. Leonardo Martínez created photo stories with great technique and beauty. Pamela Pérez kept together team and families. At the end, the grandmother invited us to her house: a tinny wooden construction attached to a rock. Tarahumara entered our heart.” —Pedro Valiente

Tarahumara is Running

“Tarahumara Project is a series of portraits in motion: a modern painting. With still photography, mostly open shots, and motionless poses, the series suggests a dialogue between an ancient culture and the contemporary world. At the start, a social/political side was considered through historic figures linked to Chihuahua: Pancho Villa (politician, Chih), Adelita (sondier’s partner, Chih), David Alfaro Siqueiros (muralist, Camargo), Agustín Melgar (Hero Boy, Chih), Luis H. Álvarez (politician, Camargo), Antonio Ortíz Mena (diplomat, Parral), José Fuentes Mares (philosopher/writer Chih), Pedro de Jesús Maldonado (saint, Chih), Felipe Ángeles (soldier, Chih), Anthony Quinn (actor, Chih). Final outcome shows static figures, Moon landscape, and present-day technology. Tarahumara, they said, did not see anything like this before. In the middle of the harsh and beautiful Sierra Madre, two Tarahumara families bring to life their magical spirit in defiance of modern culture. Nevertheless, children master mobile phones.” —Flying Fish Work

Anthropology is Art

Tarahumara Project design and photo work are on display on Behance including poster, flyer, and behind scenes images. I Behance Visual I Behance Photo

DESIGN

Tarahumara Project visual presentation in Spanish including texts by team members, and photo work by photographer Leonardo Martínez (Mexico), and filmmaker Pedro Valiente (Spain). I LINK Behance Visual

VISUALS

The Barbaric Country is a website that presents culture, arts, history, and nature of Chih. State in Northern Mexico. A media project produced by students at semana i - Innovation Week 2013 at Tecnológico de Monterrey, Chih.. The Barbaric Country is connected with Tarahumara Project I Tec de Monterrey I Innovation Week I The Barbaric Country I Site Website

WEBSITE

Multiple Portraits is a video installation trilogy that presents physical and mental deserts where life happens. It belongs to a transmedia universe of contents where the audience is free to create its own narrative navigating through interactive storytelling. Tarahumara Project (2024) Sierra Tarahumara, Mexico; Humans in the Desert (2022) Wadi Rum, Jordan; Penelope is Waiting (2015) Madrid, Spain.