(Gulf of) Abya Yala / Guna (2026)
artist's hair, cotton bedsheet, pinewood,
waxed yarn, air circulation
ORBIT, Zollverein Essen, 2026
(Gulf of) Abya Yala / Guna (2026)
artist's hair, cotton bedsheet,
pinewood, waxed yarn, air circulation
ORBIT, Zollverein Essen, 2026
(Gulf of) Abya Yala / Guna (Detail) (2026)
artist's hair, cotton bedsheet,
pinewood, waxed yarn, air circulation
ORBIT, Zollverein Essen, 2026
(Gulf of) Abya Yala / Guna (2026)
artist's hair, cotton bedsheet,
pinewood, waxed yarn, air circulation
ORBIT, Zollverein Essen, 2026
(Gulf of) Abya Yala / Guna (Detail) (2026)
artist's hair, cotton bedsheet,
pinewood, waxed yarn, air circulation
ORBIT, Zollverein Essen, 2026
(Gulf of) Abya Yala / Guna (2026)
artist's hair, cotton bedsheet,
pinewood, waxed yarn, air circulation
ORBIT, Zollverein Essen, 2026
(Gulf of) Abya Yala / Guna (Detail) (2026)
artist's hair, cotton bedsheet,
pinewood, waxed yarn, air circulation
ORBIT, Zollverein Essen, 2026
(Gulf of) Abya Yala / Guna (2026)
artist's hair, cotton bedsheet,
pinewood, waxed yarn, air circulation
ORBIT, Zollverein Essen, 2026
(Gulf of) Abya Yala / Guna (Detail) (2026)
artist's hair, cotton bedsheet,
pinewood, waxed yarn, air circulation
ORBIT, Zollverein Essen, 2026
(Gulf of) Abya Yala / Guna (Detail) (2026)
artist's hair, cotton bedsheet,
pinewood, waxed yarn, air circulation
ORBIT, Zollverein Essen, 2026
(Gulf of) Abya Yala / Guna (Detail) (2026)
artist's hair, cotton bedsheet,
pinewood, waxed yarn, air circulation
ORBIT, Zollverein Essen, 2026
(Gulf of) Abya Yala / Guna (2026) is the first work of an ongoing series titled South equals top (2026–). It questions Eurocentric representations in cartography, the appropriation of land through naming during colonial processes, and the hierarchies that these entail. The initial moment that triggered my reflections was Donald Trump’s renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Among the Guna (present-day northern Colombia and Panama), Abya Yala originally referred to the world outside their territory. In critical discourses by Indigenous voices, the name is used as a self-determined designation for the double continent and translates to “land in full bloom.” We view these land areas rotated 180° from the familiar perspective to subvert the narrative that the North would be at the top. There is neither a front nor a back, as both sides are equally significant due to the walk-around installation in the space. Cotton played a pivotal role in colonization; sheets are repurposed as banners for demonstrations. Since my mother comes from what is now Peru, using my hair in the first work of the series is a way to establish a connection from afar. In the context of the entire series, the hair can be read both as a metaphor for the disruption that this work intends to create (similar to a strand of hair that has become tangled with a fiber of a freshly washed shirt) and as a sign of solidarity.
(Works in the back: Anna Kebe)