Eclipse de Kreeh: Selk’nam Archive
Violeta Maluendres González
A living archive of Selk’nam memory, ritual, and worldview, activated through presence and participation.
Eclipse de Kreeh: Selk’nam Archive was an immersive installation by Violeta Maluendres González, co-curated with Carla Andrade. It unfolds as a living archive exploring the memory, rituals, and worldview of the Selk’nam people of Tierra del Fuego, whose culture was nearly erased through colonial violence.
Taking the work of anthropologist Anne Chapman as a point of departure, the installation transforms archival research into a participatory experience, inviting visitors to engage with documents, images, sound, objects, and materials.
Rather than presenting a closed historical narrative, the exhibition approaches memory as something fragile, mediated, and collective. Through a feminist and decolonial lens, it foregrounds translation, care, and collaboration — highlighting the alliance between Chapman, Selk’nam translator Ángela Loij, and Lola Kiepja, the last Selk’nam shaman.
Conceived as an “archaeological office of memory,” the exhibition invites visitors to move slowly, look closely, and question how histories are constructed, transmitted, and silenced. The archive here is not static: it is activated through presence, participation, and attention.
Credits
Artist and curator: Violeta Maluendres González
Co-curator: Carla Andrade
Installation coordination: Daniela Gonzalez Bollozas
Gallery assistant: Elisa Basilissi Lefebvre
Mediation: Alejandra Atalah
Host and artistic direction: Marcela Villanueva
Eclipse de Kreeh: Selk’nam Archive was presented at Bardo Projektraum, Berlin, as part of the programme of Karne Kunst gUG.