A Pluriversity in the Colombian Rainforest
28 March – 20 May 2022
gta exhibitions, ETH Zurich, Hönggerberg, HIL Foyer
In 2018 Hernando Chindoy Chindoy, leader of the Inga community in Colombia invited the Zurich artist Ursula Biemann to accompany the project for a new university, or as he puts it, a pluriversity in the Colombian rainforest. The planned decentralized pluriversity aims at protecting and developing indigenous knowledge on biodiversity, medicine, culture, agriculture and language and strengthening the Inga in their role as guardians of the Amazon.
At the Department of Architecture of ETH Zurich this project led to a two-semester studio with Anne Lacaton (2019-2020), a Fachsemester by Philip Ursprung (2022) and a seminar week with An Fonteyne (2022). In 2019 a group of ETH students visited the Inga, and in 2022 a group of Inga students visited ETH.
Pluriversity is about collaboration and mutual learning, and it implies a change of perspectives. The knowledge and protection of the fragile ecosystem of the Amazon is crucial for the future of all beings on the Earth. And the pluriversity could become a model of education and community-building way beyond Colombia.
Film still: Devenir Universidad, 2019-2022.
By Ursula Biemann Commissioned by the Art Museum at the National University of Colombia, Bogotá
With the support of Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia
