Valeria Montti Colque is known for creating image-worlds where new tales are allowed to emerge and where ritual-like performances open up space for forms of togetherness and belonging. Her inspiration comes from everyday life as well as from myths, religions, rituals, and pop culture. Characters created by her appear in public and take over places, while objects, images, symbols and stories from the Andean worldview and from all walks of life, are assembled into new constellations and invested with new meaning and significance.
In Örebro, the artist enters into dialogue with the statue of Karl XIV Johan, a landmark in the city, and a symbol of hierarchy and power. Seduced and hugged by La Ekeka—a goddess created by the artist, referencing El Ekeko, the Andean god that brings prosperity to the people—the stony king is transformed into a warmhearted Ekeka. The place behind the monument is transformed too. It has become a new public space with a 13-colour rainbow inspired by Relmu—rainbow in Mapuche language—that was created in a collective action by about 500 Mapuche weavers in an effort to set a world record for weaving during the pandemic, and a joyful fountain populated by funny beings created by the artist. They are surrounded by large flower constellations and Ekeka’s mantle spread on the ground, creating an open room for common activities as well as rest and contemplation. To initiate this new place in town, a joyous procession of Montti Colque’s characters makes its way towards the transformed statue, playing instruments and pulling carts with what seems to be parts of a mountain. Upon arrival the public is invited to join in dressing the mountain with colorful clothes and images and objects that have been sent by people in Örebro and beyond. A memory-mountain, or a wak’a—a sacred man-made object or natural boulder or mountain, found in the beliefs of the Andean people—takes form in this common effort. Containing the memories and life-glimpses of the many people that donated them, the wak’a/mountain is placed on a raft in front of Ekeka’s mantle, and a colorful, festive meal is shared with everyone around, be they participants, viewers or the curious birds that usually hang around at the spot.
Montti Colque’s processes often resemble those of ritualization: her universe of tangible forms, colors, objects and images, is a means to mediate our relationship to the world. Coming herself from multiple roots—born in Sweden but part of the Chilean and Latin American diaspora—she creates spaces where one can shed the everyday skin, let go of established norms and positions, and be allowed to be who they are or want to be. But most of all, her work and her amazing universe are a love song to the beauty and the richness of the world in its continuous transformation.
About the artist
Valeria Montti Colque is a Swedish-Chilean artist who works in a variety of expressions and media. Currently Montti Colque represents Chile in the 60th edition of the Venice Biennale. She graduated from the Royal Art Institute in Stockholm and has exhibited extensively in Sweden, Chile, Norway, Spain, Bolivia, and Germany. Her work is part of Moderna Museet’s collection and has featured in several commissions in public space.
