Art Basel 2022

For Art Basel Statements 2022, Proyectos Ultravioleta presents a solo presentation by Edgar Calel which aims to reflect and pay tribute to his family, which he considers to be his primary support system.

Within his family -as is typically the case across contemporary Mayan culture- the support that exists amongst its members transcends the traditional familial roles as typically understood in the West. For the Calel’s, family is experienced and best understood as a living organism with multiple intelligences, which constantly cares, adapts, and shape-shifts to serve its members horizontally and in different capacities. 

When the harvest arrives, the whole family heads to the fields to pick the fruits and vegetables that they planted and the earth is offering. When one of his sisters plans to open her own shop, they all work together to build it and help maintain it. When one of his brothers decides he wants to formalize his football coaching and open up a football academy, they all rally together to materialize it. When another one of his sisters opens her restaurant café, they all come together as cooking assistants, servers and cleaners. And when he himself needs to produce a body of work as the one presented in our booth, they all come together to help paint it and give it its form. 

And central to all of these activities is their double cabin red pick-up truck, which is so much more than just a car. It’s the vehicle that allows them to get through their day to day, to fulfill their individual and collective dreams and duties, and to move from point a to point b, c, d, e, z, through the rolling hills of the Guatemalan Highlands and beyond. Together. 

In Traces We Leave Over the Face of the Earth, Calel (with the help of his family) creates new and almost life-size paintings that capture daily scenes and elements around their family truck. And depicted next to it’s wheels a wooden tumulto (tumult), which serves as an external brake and allows the family to securely pause their journey to cool down the brakes to safely unwind down a hill, or to allow the motor to level down before continuing to drive uphill with all of its members and whichever crop or product they are transporting. Thus the tumult becomes a pause, a breath, an opportunity to garner their focus and collectively recalibrate before moving forward together.ute to his own family and support structure, whilst inviting us to momentarily get close to the richness of the Mayan Kaqchikel culture and cosmovision, as experienced through its complex rituals, beliefs and community practices.

For Statements Calel creates a new immersive installation that expands this existing body of work and envelops the viewer through multiple paintings -set in a simultaneous moment in time- offering a glimpse into his family’s day to day. And in the center, in between the paintings set across the three walls of the booth, a series of wooden tumults that act as invitations to pause and observe his family structure and support system to reconsider our own. 

And it is in depicting and sharing that moment that Calel pays tribute to his own family and support structure, whilst inviting us to momentarily get close to the richness of the Mayan Kaqchikel culture and cosmovision, as experienced through its complex rituals, beliefs and community practices.