ABEL RODRIGUEZ: MOGAJE GUIHU, EL NOMBRADOR DE PLANTAS

Bogotá: Ediciones Gamma S.A., 2024. b/w and color plates, port., facs., color pict. boards. Abel Rodríguez (Mogaje Guihu) is one of the most recognized indigenous artists in the world today. His work has been presented in important stages of the international circuit of contemporary art, such as Documenta 14 in Kassel (2017), the São Paulo Biennial (2021), the Toronto Art Biennial (2022), the 23rd Sydney Biennial (2022), the Gwangju Biennial in Korea (2023) and the Venice Biennial (2024). In 2014, he received the prestigious Prince Claus award, given by the Low Countries, for his work and his special ancestral connection with nature, as fundamental knowledge for global culture. This wise man of the Non-Nuya ethnic group was born in 1941 in a territory called La Sabana, located between the Cahuinarí river and the upper part of the Igara-Paraná river. Since its early formation, it has been designated as the plant namer, a term that identifies someone who knows and manages in depth the plant species of the jungle, its medicinal properties and relationships with animal species. This publication presents an extensive and beautiful compilation of the maestro's work, through a complete chronological visual tour from 2006 to the present. An interview with the voice of the maestro also appears in this book; an interpretative essay by the curator of the Hammer Museum, Pablo José Ramírez; a poem by the Mexican writer and poet Gabriela Jauregui, and a text by the director of Tropenbos Colombia, Carlos Rodríguez. Additionally, this document is enriched with the stories of the “Myth of creation” and the “Myth of abundance”, of the new cosmogony, narrated by Wilson Rodríguez (Aycohobo), son of Don Abel and heir to his legacy. Throughout this book, about his life and work, his commitment to art is only recorded, as well as botany, ecology and the sustainability of natural resources, while documenting an invaluable legacy for future generations, a true ancestral treasure and a gift of the Amazon jungle for all of us. ENGLISH AND SPANISH TEXTS.