AESTHETICS OF EXÚ AND POMBA GIRA IN THE RIO DE LA PLATA: OWNERS OF THE CROSSROAD
by Maria Carolina Baulo
Earlier this year the visual arts exhibition ‘Owners of the Crossroad, aesthetics of Exú and Pomba Gira in the Rio de la Plata' opened in Montevideo, Uruguay before moving to Buenos Aires and in 2010 to Sao Paolo. It deals with the aesthetics of Exú and Pomba Gira, African cults which arrived to America with the African slaves and gained popularity in Latin-America and showed the response of contemporary artists to these popular cults.
The role images played since the beginning of times is related not only to the concept we use to refer to as art, but also to the ritual, the devotional and the religious. In fact, what we call the contemporary art, also questions the parameters which determine what could or couldn't be included in the category of art. But to question a category, paradigm, concept or validation criteria, first it should be recognized as a cultural structure developed in a certain moment in a certain social group. Of course, usually the criteria and the categories of the dominant groups prevail - not necessarily in a pacific way - over the rest of the sensitive expressions, including the production of images.
The will to express thoughts and feelings is inherent to the essence of men. Images can operate as a wonderful tool to create a solid ideology. In the Middle Ages images were the bible for the illiterate. The educated would take advantage of it to reach the masses and introduce them to the holy church's doctrine. But any ‘artistic' expression which dared to question the fundamentals of the catholic religion would be eclipsed by the power of the church. A church that didn't just concentrate on legitimizing the Christian message but also on silencing, repressing, hiding and disqualifying any alternative to that ‘official' version of reality. Nevertheless, clandestine resistance to subjugation and to the imposition of ways of thinking always existed. But the burden of centuries of discredit and the usage of labels such as dark, evil and sinister (just remember the porticos of the Romanic or Gothic churches where all the ‘good' was at the right of Jesus and the ‘sinister' was at the left), would make the assimilation of those other narratives difficult. It is then necessary to keep an open mind and be prepared to question how our validation criteria where created and by whom. My personal experience with the Exú and Pomba Gira cults is a perfect example of this internal battle.
RITUAL
Last spring the visual arts exhibition ‘Owners of the Crossroad, aesthetics of Exú and Pomba Gira in the Rio de la Plata' ran at the Blanes Museum in Montevideo, Uruguay. It showed the aesthetics of these African cults which arrived to America with the African slaves. Juan Batalla is the promoter of the investigation of this phenomenon. He works in an interdisciplinary way as a perfect combination of anthropological, sociological, religious and artistic studies, among others. He is inspired by the Warburg's Institute method based on the idea of the multidisciplinary as the foundation for the understanding of social groups. In this project we find the interaction of literature - ‘Owners of the Crossroad' was first presented as a book of images and texts by authors from Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay representing diverse disciplines. An art exhibition which started in Uruguay, followed by the Rojas Cultural Centre in August in Buenos Aires and finally ending in Sao Paolo, Brazil. The visual arts exhibition is identical to the collection of images showed in the book but with the inclusion of installations and site specific works specially created to be exhibited for the first time.
It isn't easy to approach these kinds of issues. Imagery of these characteristics is systematically related to the ideas of marginality and the occult. At this point, my personal impression reflected an internal fight as I was trying to assimilate and recognize in these works an expressive medium which is aesthetically as valuable and rich as those used by the occidental culture. These are images related to rituals and religion and they assume a pagan perspective. They recover things which monotheist religions condemn like polytheism and paganism. They free the faithful of all fears of living in this world, of becoming the protagonists of their lives. The African cults of Exú and Pomba Gira are liberating cults; nevertheless the followers assume a compromise. They consider each invocation or request to the gods has consequences. The presence of good and evil always manifest themselves in equal proportions.
As already mentioned Exú (male) and Pomba Gira (female) are spiritual entities of African cults. It is curious to find out, that despite all attempts to disqualify and silence them, nothing could stop these cults from getting stronger and growing in the suburbs of the most important cities of Argentina and Uruguay. These are spirits related to irony, sex and transgression. Exú is usually identified and represented with keys, dogs and demons. Pomba Gira relates to beauty, sensuality, perfumes and jewels, among others. Exú's cult arrived to America with the African slaves and was transformed in such a way that it generated a parallel cult: the Kimbanda. And where every other religion - except the Jewish and especially the catholic faith - found an image for each saint and god, by a syncretic phenomenon Exú and Pomba Gira assume the place of the devils. African divinities adopted Christian saints as alter-egos and subverted the relation: the African followers of the Umbanda managed to hide their gods under the appearance of Christian saints, like pre-Columbus civilizations did when they were forced to accept the imposition of imagery brought from Europe to the American continent. Pomba Gira and Exú are irreverent spirits; Pomba Gira is the spirit of a prostitute, a woman who knows the world and the power of the night, capable of seducing and dominating men, interested in lust, money and all kinds of pleasure. Exú is a marginal and bandit spirit that could seem trustable but he's tricky and astute as a fox. But they are far from the satanic demons that we were taught in catholic schools, on the contrary, they seek men's fulfillment here and now, in this life.
The main importance of this exhibition at the Blanes Museum, expressed and represented by Uruguayan and Argentine artists, lies in the role played by Exú: a divinity that highlights the pantheon of African-Latin gods, spreading out his many faces and contradictory personality. Simultaneously he is identified as a spirit and also as ‘orixá' or divinity. The subtle purpose would be to express in a clear and conclusive way, the enormous complexity and richness found in arts that derivate from a contemporary theology which gets stronger and even harder to ignore as we speak.
The cult made a long journey and was nurtured along the way by different cultural influences which, once in Uruguay and Argentina, gained a new meaning: from Africa to Cuba, Haiti, Bahia (Brazil) and from there to the rest of America and all over Brazil; finally from Porto Alegre to Buenos Aires and Montevideo. The 20th century is the context where this fantastic cultural and ideological contamination took place, carrying within the African cults an enormous amount of artistic expressions: the rituals embrace dance, music, exotic foods, performances and theatrical customs. These are popular gods, close to the people and accessible. To study these cults brings us closer to what the big masses think: their ideas, necessities, nostalgia's, sufferings and desires.
ART
Juan Batalla, Argentine, visual artist, co-director of the Arte Brujo Editorial, curator of the exhibition and student of the African cults, is in charge of outlining the perspective of the exhibition. The photographs by the Argentine photographer Guillermo Srodek Hart are the witnesses, a window that allows us to participate in the majestic presence of the Kimbanda altars in Montevideo and Buenos Aires. These aren't 35mm or digital photographs; the idea was to use large format cameras which allow penetrating and capturing, in all its magnitude, the installations built by the cult followers. Presented as diptychs and even triptychs, they reconstruct the space where the altars are placed and at the same time disassociate them from their religious environment while becoming new works of art. Other contemporary artists from Uruguay and Argentina committed to this proposal, each one with their own formal and aesthetic point of view. Some of them related to the ritual and religious side and others lived the experience as a cultural event. The Argentine visual artist Dany Barreto, also co-director of the Arte Brujo Editorial, put together an installation of small flags, recreating an Umbanda temple, and centered the attention to a characteristic symbol representative of Exú: a dog. ‘The Murciélaga' (translation would be ‘The bat' but female) - name of the black dog, loyal companion of the artist and protagonist of many of his works - appears as an Exú in one of the multiple roles of this divinity. The paradigmatic Argentine artist Leon Ferrari, nowadays creating, once more, a big debate around his art works which the MOMA of New York recently acquired, showed a controversial piece where Exú's icons were compared to demons, acting as the counterpart of Christian saints. Guillermo Zabaleta, Uruguayan, performed an installation with flags burnt with powder, creating ritual signs all over the room; a video completed his work. Melina Scumburdis, also from Argentina, made also an installation using another symbolic element which represents Exú: keys.
Diverse contemporary artistic visions came together in discovering and showing the richness and beauty of this culture, a beauty - literally - hiding from the public eye. We can no longer ignore the presence of a culture whose kingdom is in the peripheries. As curator Batalla said, "the penetration of the African cults is part of a collective construction; there's no Pope, no authority who determines where things should lead to. Religion fluctuates, moves and recreates permanently through a very rich mythology, mostly unexplored".
I would like to finish my text quoting Pai Milton Acosta - an important priest of the Umbanda cult in the region of the Rio de la Plata - when he had to talk about ‘Owners of the Crossroad'. It's a description I find similar to the assimilation process I had to go through while approaching these themes. After an initial rejection caused by the unknown, I'm glad to discover a strong feeling of desire for knowledge, understanding and assuming ‘the other' and its thoughts as another perspective as valid as any other, has prevailed in me. This means recognizing the diversity and empowering it with the entity it deserves, not only in the field of rituals but also where those expressions combine with art and religion. So, quoting Milton Acosta, "... Exú and Pombo Gira were shown at the Blanes Museum in such a way that suggests that the artists were gifted with a non prejudiced point of view. It resulted in an outrageous work of art, rich and subversive. Perhaps an open bridge for a society that is full of fears when it comes to face the unknown, and doesn't dare to make choices".
Maria Carolina BAULO
is an Argentine art writer and worked as art critic on the exhibition. She has a Master's Degree in History of Art, with studies in Cinematography, Photography and Theatre.
‘Owners of the Crossroad' was shown in the Museo Municipal de Bellas Artes Juan Manuel Blanes - Montevideo - Uruguay, April 28th - June 5th 2009, www.montevideo.gub.uy/museoblanes.
And In the Centro Cultural Ricardo Rojas- Buenos Aires - Argentina, August 6th - 30th, www.rojas.uba.ar. It will be shown again in 2010 in Sao Paolo, Brazil.
The role images played since the beginning of times is related not only to the concept we use to refer to as art, but also to the ritual, the devotional and the religious. In fact, what we call the contemporary art, also questions the parameters which determine what could or couldn’t be included in the category of art. But to question a category, paradigm, concept or validation criteria, first it should be recognized as a cultural structure developed in a certain moment in a certain social group. Of course, usually the criteria and the categories of the dominant groups prevail – not necessarily in a pacific way – over the rest of the sensitive expressions, including the production of images.
The will to express thoughts and feelings is inherent to the essence of men. Images would operate as a wonderful tool to create a solid ideology. In the Middle Ages images were the bible for the illiterate. The educated would take advantage of it to reach the masses and introduce them to the holy church’s doctrine. But any ‘artistic’ expression which dared to question the fundaments of the catholic religion, would be eclipsed by the power of the church. A church that wasn’t just concentrated in legitimizing the Christian message but also to silence, repress, hide and disqualify any alternative to that ‘official’ version of reality. Nevertheless, clandestinity, resistance to subjugation and the imposition of ways of thinking always existed. But the burden of centuries of discredit and the usage of labels such as dark, evil and sinister (just remember the porticos of the Romanic or Gothic churches where all the ‘good’ was at the right of Jesus and the ‘sinister’ was at the left), would make the assimilation of those other narratives difficult. It is then necessary to keep an open mind and be prepared to question how our validation criteria where created and by whom. My personal experience with the Exú and Pomba Gira cults is a perfect example of this internal battle.
From April 28th until June 8th, 2009 the visual arts exhibition ‘Owners of the Crossroad, aesthetics of Exú and Pomba Gira in the Rio de la Plata’ ran at the Blanes Museum in Montevideo, Uruguay showing the aesthetics of these African cults which arrived to America with the African slaves. Juan Batalla is the promoter of the investigation of this phenomenon. He works in an interdisciplinary way as a perfect combination of anthropological, sociological, religious and artistic studies, among others. He is inspired by the Warburg´s Institute method based on the idea of the multidisciplinary as the fundament for the understanding of social groups. Here we find the interaction of literature - ‘Owners of the Crossroad’ was first presented as a book of images and texts by authors from Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay representing diverse disciplines -, and an art exhibition which started in Uruguay, followed by the Rojas Cultural Centre in August in Buenos Aires and finally ending in Sao Paolo, Brazil. The visual arts exhibition is identical to the collection of images showed in the book but with the inclusion of installations and site specific works specially created to be exhibited for the first time.
It isn’t easy to approach these kinds of issues. Imagery of these characteristics is systematically related with the ideas of marginality and the occult. At this point, my personal impression reflected an internal fight when trying to assimilate and recognize in these works an expressive medium as aesthetically valuable and rich as those used by the occidental culture. These are images related to rituality and religion and which assume a pagan perspective. They recover the main things which monotheist religions condemn like polytheism and paganism. They free the faithful of all fears of living in this world, of becoming the protagonists of their lives. Joy and delight are allowed, they encourage men to let the course of life flow without expecting any compensation in another life for the sacrifices made in this one. The faithful doesn’t trade his soul for miracles, instead he should offer a gift showing his respect and gratitude, and there’s not just one omnipresent and all mighty god but several popular divinities, close to the people, which perform actions in specifically well determined areas. This might be one of the reasons to explain why the influence of these cults is expanding so fast. The African cults of Exú and Pomba Gira are liberating cults; nevertheless the followers assume a compromise. They consider each invocation or request to the gods has consequences. The presence of good and evil always manifests in equal proportions.
As already mentioned Exú (male) and Pomba Gira (female) are spiritual entities of African cults. It is curious to find out, that despite all attempts to disqualify and silence them, nothing could stop the cults from getting stronger and growing in the suburbs of the most important cities of Argentina and Uruguay. These are spirits related to irony, sex and transgression. Exú is usually identified and represented with keys, dogs and demons. Pomba Gira relates with beauty, sensuality, perfumes and jewels, among others. Exú´s cult arrived to America with the African slaves and transformed in such a way that it generated a parallel cult: the Kimbanda. And where every other religion - except the Jewish - and especially the catholic faith – found an image for each saint and god, the syncretic phenomenon made Exú and Pomba Gira assume the place of the devils. African divinities adopted Christian saints as alter-egos and subverted the relation: the African followers of the Umbanda managed to hide their gods under the appearance of Christian saints, like pre-Columbus civilizations did when they were forced to accept the imposition of imagery brought from Europe to the American continent. Pomba Gira and Exú are irreverent spirits; Pomba Gira is the spirit of a prostitute, a woman who knows the world and the power of the night, capable of seducing and dominating men, interested in lust, money and all kinds of pleasure. Exú is a marginal and bandit spirit that could seem trustable but he’s tricky and astute as a fox. But they are far from the satanic demons that we were taught in catholic schools, on the contrary, they seek men’s fulfilment here and now, in this life.
The main importance of this exhibition at the Blanes Museum, expressed and represented by Uruguayan and Argentine artists, lies in the role played by Exú: a divinity that highlights the pantheon of African-Latin gods, spreading out his many faces and contradictory personality. Simultaneously he is identified as a spirit and also as ‘orixá’ or divinity. The subtle purpose would be to express in a clear and conclusive way, the enormous complexity and richness found in arts that derivate from a contemporary theology which gets stronger and even harder to ignore as we speak.
The cult made a long journey and was nurtured along the way by different cultural influences which, once in Uruguay and Argentina, gained a new meaning: from Africa to Cuba, Haiti, Bahia (Brazil) and from there to the rest of America and all over Brazil; finally from Porto Alegre to Buenos Aires and Montevideo. The 20th century is the context where this fantastic cultural and ideological contamination took place, carrying within the African cults an enormous amount of artistic expressions: rituals embrace dance, music, exotic foods, performances and theatrical customs. And talking about popular gods, close to the people and accessible, to study these cults bring us closer to what the big masses think: their ideas, necessities, nostalgia's, sufferings and desires. Far form any ethic or moral code imposed by the occidental tradition. These are divinities that appear close to human sensibility because of the personal experiences they had to overcome. They seem to understand the passion of their followers so they become trustable by those who invocate them.
Juan Batalla, Argentine, visual artist, co-director of the Arte Brujo Editorial, curator of the exhibition and student of the African cults, is in charge of outlining the perspective of the exhibition. The photographs by the argentine photographer Guillermo Srodek Hart are the witnesses, a window that allows us to participate in the majestic presence of the Kimbanda altars in Montevideo and Buenos Aires. These aren’t 35mm or digital photographs; the idea was to use large format cameras which allow penetrating and capturing, in all its magnitude, these installations built by the cult followers. Presented as diptychs and even triptychs, they reconstruct the space where the altars are placed and at the same time disassociate them from their religious environment while becoming new works of art. Other contemporary artists from Uruguay and Argentina committed to this proposal, each one with their own formal and aesthetic point of view. Some of them related to the ritual and religious side and others lived the experience as a cultural event. The Argentinean visual artist Dany Barreto also co-director of the Arte Brujo Editorial, put together an installation of small flags, recreating an Umbanda temple, and centred the attention to a characteristic symbol representative of Exú: a dog. ‘The Murciélaga’ (translation would be ‘The bat’ but female) – name of the black dog, loyal companion of the artist and protagonist of many of his works – appears as an Exú in one of the multiple roles of this divinity. The paradigmatic Argentinean artist Leon Ferrari, nowadays creating, once more, a big debate around his art works which the MOMA of New York recently acquired, showed a controversial piece where Exú´s icons were compared to demons, acting as the counterpart of Christian saints. Guillermo Zabaleta, Uruguayan, performed an installation with flags burnt with powder, creating ritual signs all over the room; a video completed his work. Melina Scumburdis, also from Argentina, made also an installation using another symbolic element which represents Exú: keys. Marcelo Bordese, Nora Correas, Ángela López Ruiz, Diego Perrotta, Nico Sara, Gustavo Tabares, Anabel Vanoni y Margaret Whyte, talented and well known artists from these two countries also participated of the exhibition.
Diverse contemporary artistic visions came together in discovering and showing the richness and beauty of this culture, a beauty – literally – hiding from the public eye. We can no longer ignore the presence of a culture whose kingdom is in the peripheries. As curator Batalla said, “the penetration of the African cults is part of a collective construction; there’s no Pope, no authority who determines where things should lead to. Religion fluctuates, moves and recreates permanently through a very rich mythology, mostly unexplored".
I would like to finish my text quoting Pai Milton Acosta - an important priest of the Umbanda cult in the region of the Rio de la Plata - when he had to talk about ‘Owners of the Crossroad’. It’s a description I find similar to the assimilation process I had to go through while approaching these themes. After an initial rejection caused by the unknown, I’m glad to discover a strong feeling of desire for knowledge, understanding and assuming ‘the other’ and its thoughts as another perspective as valid as any other, has prevailed in me. This means recognizing the diversity and empowering it with the entity it deserves, not only in the field of rituality but also where those expressions combine with art and religion. So, quoting Milton Acosta, “… Exú and Pomba Gira were shown at the Blanes Museum in such a way that suggests that the artists were gifted with a non prejudiced point of view. It resulted in an outrageous work of art, rich and subversive. Perhaps an open bridge for a society that is full of fears when it comes to face the unknown, and doesn’t dare to make choices”
POSTED BY MARIA CAROLINA BAULO AT 3:14 AM 0 COMMENTS
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2009
Dueños de la Encrucijada
Dueños de la Encrucijada, estéticas de Exú y Pomba Gira en el Río de la Plata
Por María Carolina Baulo
____________________
El rol que han desempeñado las imágenes a lo largo de la historia de la humanidad se relaciona, no solo con concepto de arte que conocemos actualmente, sino con lo ritual, lo devocional, lo religioso. A decir verdad, el arte que damos en llamar contemporáneo, también cuestiona los parámetros que definen aquello que puede o no ser incluido en la categoría artística; pero para cuestionar una categoría, un paradigma, un concepto o un criterio de validación, primero hay que reconocerlo como tal siendo portador de una formación cultural propia de un grupo social en un momento determinado. Y son, invariablemente, los criterios y las categorías de los grupos dominantes los que se imponen - no necesariamente de forma pacífica - sobre el resto de las expresiones sensibles dentro de las cuales se ubica la producción de imaginería. La voluntad de expresar lo que se piensa y se siente es una necesidad que se presenta inherente al hombre; la representación ha servido como vehículo de materialización de miles de puntos de vista culturales claramente distintos, conviviendo en las mismas épocas y dando fe de la existencia de creencias tan antagónicas como complementarias. Si hacemos un corte sincrónico y tomamos, por ejemplo, la hegemonía ejercida sobre la producción de imágenes en la Edad Media, notamos la supremacía de la imaginería religiosa relativa a los relatos bíblicos y los santos evangelios. Aun sin un concepto de artista como se desarrollará a posteriori con el Renacimiento, los poseedores anónimos del techné eran los encargados de traducir en obras, un mensaje cuyo eje se centraba en el discurso letrado de los exegetas de la Biblia. En este contexto, cualquier expresión “artística” que cuestionara los fundamentos de una religión que buscaba afianzar sus raíces en un nuevo mundo que la había visto salir triunfante tras convertir al gran emperador romano Constantino, sería opacada por el poder que empieza a cobrar la iglesia desde entonces. Poder que no solamente se concentro en legitimar ese mensaje cristiano que se suponía vinculado al amor por el prójimo, la compasión, la redención, el perdón, la austeridad sino que utilizó todo medio a su alcance para silenciar, reprimir, ocultar y descalificar toda alternativa a esa lectura “oficial” de la realidad que se buscaba dar. Mensaje que aterrorizó a sus súbditos infundiéndoles culpa, vergüenza y la constante idea del pecado ligado a las pasiones carnales y extensivo al pensamiento sacrílego. La imaginería sería una maravillosa herramienta para construir una ideología sólida; las imágenes serían La Biblia de los iletrados y los letrados aprovecharían al máximo su llegada a las masas para “educarlas” en la doctrina de la santa iglesia. No hace falta aclarar que el mensaje cristiano, en su esencia, se encuentra muy lejos de estos usos y abusos, interpretaciones y sobreinterpretaciones que llevaron a distorsionar un compromiso de ecumenicidad y convertirlo en un campo de lucha tan sangriento, sino más, que la propia arena donde una vez los propios cristianos perecieron. Hubo quienes lucharon por sostener una mirada comprometida, San Francisco sin ir más lejos, pero los resultados dejan a la vista que no fue el camino de las mayorías. Sin embargo, desde la clandestinidad, siempre existió la resistencia al sometimiento y a la imposición de las formas de pensar. Así es como se han logrado conservar y trasmitir otras formas de pensamiento igualmente válidas y legítimas. Sucede que los años pesan y aquello que durante siglos se ha rotulado como oscuro, maligno, siniestro (vasta recordar los portales de las iglesias Románicas o Góticas donde todo lo “bueno” se encuentra a la diestra de Cristo y lo “siniestro” a su izquierda), portador de un relato contestatario, será entonces conflictivamente digerido por la gente, siendo necesaria una mente abierta que se permita cuestionarse cómo nuestros propios criterios de validación y de verdad han sido construidos y por quienes. Mi experiencia personal sería un claro ejemplo de esta batalla interna.
Desde el 28 de abril al 8 de Junio de 2009, en el Museo Blanes de Montevideo, Uruguay se desarrolla “Dueños de la Encrucijada, estéticas de Exú y Pomba Gira en el Río de la Plata”, una exhibición de artes visuales que nos acerca a las estéticas del culto africanista. Juan Batalla es el promotor de esta investigación del fenómeno, tomando como punto de partida lo interdisciplinario, una perfecta combinación de estudios antropológicos, sociológicos, religiosos y artísticos, entre otros. Tal el modelo de la Escuela de Warburg que planteaba lo multidisciplinario como base para el entendimiento de los fenómenos que suceden y afectan a los grupos sociales, aquí se pone en juego lo literario, siendo plasmado en un libro de imágenes y textos de autores provenientes de distintos campos del saber tanto de Argentina, Brasil como de Uruguay y por otro lado una muestra de arte que se inaugura en el Museo Blanes para luego ser llevada a Buenos Aires al Centro Cultural Rojas y más tarde terminar en San Pablo, Brasil. La exhibición de artes visuales se presenta como una síntesis, un muestrario de aquellas imágenes que aparecen reproducidas en el libro, a las cuales se les suman instalaciones y recreaciones que encuentran en esta ocasión su primera oportunidad de lucirse.
Estructurar un acercamiento a estos temas no resulta sencillo. Estamos frente a un tipo de imaginería que, sistemáticamente, ha sido relegada al campo de lo oculto, lo oscuro y lo marginal. Es entonces cuando mi experiencia personal se muestra como evidencia de una operación de lucha interna por incorporar y reconocer en este tipo de trabajos una vía expresiva tan rica y estéticamente valiosa como aquellas que la cultura occidental ha posicionado triunfantes. Imágenes que remiten al rito y la religión, tal como las cristianas, pero desde una perspectiva pagana. Recuperan aquello primordial que las religiones monoteístas han condenado tanto como lo hicieran con el politeísmo o el paganismo: liberan al fiel del terror a vivir en el aquí y ahora, de ser protagonistas de su historia, de gozar y dejar fluir sin esperar una premiación en otra vida por sus privaciones en esta. Tampoco se le pide al fiel su alma a cambio de milagros sino una simple ofrenda que demuestre su respeto y agradecimiento y no se lo mide con un dios omnipresente y todopoderoso sino con divinidades populares, cercanas, cuyo campo de acción estaría claramente determinado. Y quizás estas serían algunas de las cualidades que explican su creciente influencia. El culto africanista de Exú y Pomba Gira es un culto liberador, sin embargo el fiel asume un compromiso y según los devotos, cada pedido e invocación que se hace a las divinidades, tiene sus consecuencias; el bien y el mal están siempre presentes en partes iguales.
Ya se adelantó que Exú (macho) y Pomba Gira (hembra) son entidades espirituales celebradas en los cultos africanos. Curiosamente, a pesar del incansable operativo que buscó y busca descalificarlo y silenciarlo, el culto sigue creciendo en los suburbios de las ciudades más importantes de Argentina y Uruguay. Espíritus vinculados a lo irónico, el sexo, lo trasgresor; a Exú se lo puede ver representado e identificado con llaves, el perro, los demonios, y Pomba Gira está vinculada con la belleza, la sensualidad, las telas sedosas, los perfumes, las joyas, entre otros. El culto a Exú llega a América con los esclavos africanos y sufre tal alteración en su personificación, que logra generar un culto paralelo: la kimbanda. Y si en cada religión, exceptuando la judía pero especialmente en la católica, cada santo y cada dios ha encontrado una imagen representativa de su figura, el fenómeno del sincretismo hizo que Exú y Pomba Gira tomaran el lugar de los diablos; las entidades africanas adoptaron santos cristiano como alter-egos e invirtieron la relación establecida en el gusto católico por las imágenes: los africanistas ocultaron sus deidades bajo la apariencia de deidades cristianas, tal como lo hicieran las civilizaciones precolombinas ante la imposición de las imágenes de culto traídas de Europa al continente Americano. Es cierto que las Pomba Giras y los Exús, son espíritus irreverentes; Pomba Gira es el espíritu de una prostituta, una mujer de mundo y de la noche, capaz de seducir y dominar a los hombres, amante del lujo, del dinero y de toda suerte de placeres. A su vez, los Exús son espíritus de bandidos y marginales que pueden mostrarse confiables pero siempre guardan una cuota de picardía y la astucia propia del zorro. Pero lejos estamos de los demonios satánicos que nos enseñaron son los destructores del hombre, sino todo lo contrario: el énfasis se pone en la realización del hombre pero en esta vida. La clave de esta exhibición en el Museo Blanes, donde lo que se presenta fundamentalmente es el arte de uruguayos y argentinos, yace en el papel que desempeña Exú, destacado dentro del panteón de deidades afro latinas, desplegando su núcleo multifacético y contradictorio, en su identificación como espíritu pero también como orixá o deidad. La idea central que subyace sería exponer de forma clara y contundente, la enorme complejidad y la riqueza que comprometen las artes derivadas de una teología contemporánea que cada vez cuesta más ignorar
El camino que ha recorrido el culto es extenso y en su viaje fue nutriéndose de distintas influencias culturales que lograron resignificarse en Uruguay y Argentina: partiendo de África hacia Cuba, Haití, Bahía (Brasil) y desde allí al resto de América y posterior expansión por el Brasil; finalmente desde Porto Alegre hacia Buenos Aires y Montevideo. El siglo XX es el marco donde se desarrolla este fantástico movimiento y contaminación cultural que encierra, dentro del culto africanista, una enorme cantidad de vías expresivas de lo artístico: los rituales se componen de danzas, música, comidas exóticas y vestimentas histriónicas. Y si hablamos de dioses populares, cercanos a la gente, accesibles, el estudio de sus cultos nos acerca a los pensamientos, ideas, necesidades, nostalgias, sufrimientos y deseos de grandes grupos de la población, muy alejadas de los códigos ético morales impuestos por la tradición cristiana occidental. Son entidades que se suelen reconocer parecidas a los seres humanos, los avatares de sus vidas los hace conocedores de las relaciones y pasiones de sus devotos y eso los acredita con el poder para acudir en ayuda de quienes depositan en ellos su confianza para aplacar sus angustias.
Juan Batalla, argentino, artista visual, co-director de la Editorial Arte Brujo y curador de la muestra y estudioso de los cultos africanistas, es el encargado de plantear la perspectiva que se elige tomar para armar el relato: las fotografías de altares del fotógrafo argentino Guillermo Srodek Hart se convierten en los ojos testigos, una ventana que nos hace presenciar, en toda su plenitud, la imponencia de los altares de kimbanda en Montevideo y Buenos Aires. No son fotografías 35mm ni de cámaras digitales sino que se busca sacar el máximo provecho que brinda el uso de la cámara formato grande, permitiendo penetrar en las instalaciones construidas por los religiosos y presentar las imágenes en forma de dípticos y hasta trípticos que reconstruyen un espacio en tamaño casi real al tiempo que lo sustraen de su ámbito madre, el religioso, para presentarlo como una obra de arte. También otros artistas contemporáneos, tanto del Uruguay como de Argentina, se comprometen con el abordaje de estos temas desde sus distintos puntos de vista, elecciones estéticas y formales; están aquellos que se vinculan con el aspecto ritual y religioso y quienes lo viven y trasmiten como evidencia de un hecho cultural. El artista visual Dany Barreto, argentino, co-director de la Editorial Arte Brujo, presenta una instalación de banderines recreando un templo umbanda y centra la atención en un símbolo característico de Exú: el perro. Pero lo curioso en este caso, es que “La Murciélaga” – nombre de la perra negra, fiel compañera del artista y protagonista de muchas de sus obras – se presenta como un Exú, desplegando así una de las tantas caras que puede asumir el dios. La obra del paradigmático artista argentino León Ferrari, hoy día causando una vez más, grandes debates alrededor de sus obras recientemente adquiridas por el MOMA de New York, presenta un polémico trabajo donde utiliza los íconos de Exús como demonios, para confrontarlos con los santos cristianos. Guillermo Zabaleta, uruguayo, realiza una instalación de banderas quemadas con pólvora para formar signos rituales y la acompaña con un video. Melina Scumburdis, también argentina, presenta una instalación de llaves refiriendo así a otro de los característicos símbolos de Exú. También participan artistas como Marcelo Bordese, Nora Correas, Ángela López Ruiz, Diego Perrotta, Nico Sara, Gustavo Tabares, Anabel Vanoni y Margaret Whyte. Artistas contemporáneos, comprometidos con la idea de descubrir y mostrar la riqueza y la belleza, ciertamente diferente pero belleza al fin, que se esconde – literalmente – a la vista del público alejado del arte ritual. Y como ya se ha dejado inferir anteriormente, esconder no es destruir y muy a pesar del poder de la ignorancia y el desconocimiento, estamos en presencia de una cultura que se retroalimenta y crece a cada momento desde las periferias. Para Batalla, “la penetración del culto africanista tiene que ver con una construcción colectiva, no hay un Papa, ninguna autoridad que dictamine hacia donde siguen las cosas. La religión va fluctuando, se va moviendo y creando de manera permanente, a través de una mitología poco recorrida y muy rica".
Quisiera cerrar mi texto citando la acertadísima frase del Pai Milton Acosta, cuando le tocó referirse a “Dueños de la Encrucijada”, la cual encuentro afín al trabajo que personalmente tuve que hacer para acercarme al abordaje de este texto. Habiendo partido del rechazo inicial que me provocara lo desconocido, me gratifica descubrir que tras haber pasado por distintas etapas he llegado a la instancia donde el deseo por conocer, comprender y asumir al otro y sus pensamientos como una posibilidad tan válida como cualquier otro discurso, ha prevalecido. Ello implica nada más ni nada menos que reconocer las diferencias y darles la entidad que les pertenecen y que supieron ganarse tanto dentro del plano ritual como en el campo de las expresiones que combinan lo artístico con lo religioso. Citando entonces a Milton Acosta, “… Eshu y Pombo Gira se han instalado en el Museo Blanes por medio de aquello que sugieren a aquellos artistas que dotados de visión desprejuiciada, han podido encontrarles en una obra desenfadada, riquísima y subversiva. Tal vez, un puente abierto para una sociedad plagada de temores ante lo desconocido y que no osa hacer sus elecciones”.
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