MoMA PS1 Presents Multimedia Installation By Artists And Musicians Chuquimamani-Condori & Joshua Chuquimia Crampton Opening March 16 

MoMA PS1 will present a newly commissioned, multimedia installation made collaboratively by Chuquimamani-Condori (Elysia Crampton Chuquimia, b. 1985, Inland Empire, CA) and Joshua Chuquimia Crampton (b. 1983, San Diego, CA), a sibling duo working as artists and musicians who belong to the Pakajaqi nation of Aymara people.

On view from March 16 through October 2, 2023 in PS1's double-height ground-floor gallery, this immersive work interlaces sound and music with a mural that incorporates personal stories from the artists' family and the Aymara- comprising several Indigenous nations who live across the Andean highlands of Bolivia, Southern Peru, and Northern Chile. Honoring their great-great-grandparents, Aymara leaders Francisco Tancara and Rosa Quiñones, the artists incarnate their elders' dream, releasing them from religious doctrine and state laws that suppress queer and native autonomy.

Q'iwanakaxa/Q'iwsanakaxa Utjxiwa (Cacique apoderado Francisco Tancara & Rosa Quiñones confronted by the subprefecto, chief of police, corregidor, archbishop, Reid Shepard, & Adventist missionaries) brings together Indigenous Aymara cosmologies with queer and abolitionist thought, incorporating multiple forms of intergenerational knowledge through Aymara symbolism, oral histories, and exchange. Alongside the exhibition, MoMA PS1 will present a two-part Indigenous and Migrant Justice Symposium and host a musical performance by the sibling duo. Previously, Chuquimamani-Condori (Elysia Crampton) performed at MoMA PS1's Warm Up in 2016.

The centerpiece of the installation is a large-scale, digitally rendered collage, which also serves as a model for a potential community mural in Rosario, Bolivia, where the artists' land ties remain. The work centers Aymara q'iwa and q'iwsa medicine, also known as queer medicine, to enact reciprocal healing. The collage components combine qillqa (an Aymaran form of writing with images), traditional medicines, and archival family photos with new drawings that tell their multi-generational story, while audiences can spend time in the immersive space to hear these stories come to life through oral histories and an original score.

The mural contains images to honor the artists' relatives, in depictions that range from bones in a coffin to traditional medicines. The artists' great-great-grandparents were part of a movement that asserted the Aymara people's legal land titles, built schools when native education was criminalized, and practiced freedom of religion-activities for which they were persecuted by the Catholic church and Bolivian state. By continuing the anti-colonial labor of the artists' elders, the installation's many layers articulate new possibilities for the future.

Chuquimamani-Condori (Elysia Crampton Chuquimia) is a Northern California-based artist and musician belonging to the Pakajaqi nation of Aymara people. They have recently presented work with NTS Radio London, Centre d'Art Contemporain Genève, and Auto Italia, where they presented Amaru's Tongue: Daughter (2021), a collaborative work with Joshua Chuquimia Crampton. In 2016, Elysia Crampton performed at MoMA PS1's Warm Up. They also work with AIM SoCal, the Southern California autonomous chapter of the American Indian Movement.

Joshua Chuquimia Crampton is a Northern California-based musician and artist belonging to the Pakajaqi nation of Aymara people. His recent musical releases include 4 (2021) and The Heart's Wash (2020), a full-length project of solo guitar compositions. He also composed the score for Amaru's Tongue: Daughter (2021). Recent presentations of his work have taken place at Haus der Kunst, Munich (2021) and Auto Italia, London (2021).

Chuquimamani-Condori and Joshua Chuquimia Crampton is organized by Ruba Katrib, Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs, with Elena Ketelsen González, Assistant Curator.

PROGRAMS

March 18, 3:30 p.m.

Indigenous and Migrant Justice Symposium Part 1

Free Tickets

Alongside the exhibition, MoMA PS1 will present a two-part symposium on Indigenous and migrant justice on Saturday, March 18, 2023, and Saturday, June 3, 2023. Held with live translation in English and Spanish, the March 18 event-as part of PS1's March Open House-will gather an intersectional group of thinkers and activists to discuss Andean perspectives on Indigenous self-determination, drawing out broader connections to the politics of migration and detention in the US. Through careful consideration of oral histories and analyses of current detention and incarceration policies, speakers will explore enduring practices of resistance and kinship that have challenged state control and violence. They will also reflect on the specific and shared impacts of imperialism and colonialism on Native education, religious freedom, gender, and sexuality. Participants include activist David Aruquipa Pérez, academic Itzel Corona Aguilar, artist and educator Tecumseh Ceaser, and local community group Red de Pueblos Transnacionales.

June 3, 3 p.m.

Indigenous and Migrant Justice Symposium Part 2

Free Tickets

For the second part of this symposium on Indigenous and migrant justice, Bolivian and Aymara sociologist Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui will deliver a lecture on the topic of Andean oral history and her research on Ch'ixi, a notion that "expresses the parallel coexistence of multiple cultural differences that do not extinguish but instead antagonize and complement each other." She will expand upon ideas explored in her forthcoming book, A Ch'ixi World is Possible: Essays from a Present in Crisis.

July 13, 7 p.m.

Performance by Chuquimamani-Condori and Joshua Chuquimia Crampton Free Tickets

In conjunction with the exhibition, Chuquimamani-Condori and Joshua Chuquimia Crampton will present an evening of live music featuring the sibling duo's original compositions on Thursday, July 13, 2023. Weaving together a range of influences and source material from Andean traditions to electronic music, their work forefronts a sound that evokes personal histories and intergenerational storytelling. The performance at MoMA PS1 continues their longstanding exploration of audiovisual forms that commingle the past and future in multi-faceted works that engage Indigenous Aymara cosmologies and queer abolitionist thought.

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