For ARCO Madrid 2025, Proyectos Ultravioleta proudly presents a solo by Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa (Guatemala, 1978), whose practice reframes recent and historical events, to find new ways of looking at social, political and ecological conditions, and which comes ahead of his major solo show in Museo Reina Sofía opening at the end of May.
Thought of as a solo exhibition, with works in painting, sculpture and performance, our presentation aims to critically explore the human fascination with flora across history— from veneration, cult, and medicinal use, to the looming threats of destruction and extinction driven by human actions.
Naufus’s ongoing series, 'Variations of Anthurium Leafs' (2021- ), is rooted in a narrative from various Colombian Amazon villagers, recounted to him during a research trip. It is said that during the Spanish colonial period, a high-ranking Peninsular official became fixated with a particular variety of Anthurium unique to the region. Obsessed, he ordered locals to locate the finest specimen. After acquiring it, he razed the forest to ensure he alone could claim ownership of this plant. Disturbed by this tale, Naufus has dedicated himself to “cataloguing” the intricate patterns of various Anthurium leaves, native to Central America, preserving these "sacred geometries"; against the oblivion and erasure of history.
Commissioned by the Watermill Center, 'After Clearing the Internal Forests' (2019) is a video in which performers - phantasmagorically draped in white, bearing white branches- assert themselves as the spiritual guardians of a devastated landscape that they carefully navigate. This dual-natured performance symbolizes a healing ritual and a haunting, evoking both reverence and mourning for devastated lands. Although the work was staged as the 2019 Amazon wildfires were taking place, it directly references man-made wildfires in 2018 that resulted in the severe destruction of over 47,000 hectares of Guatemala’s northeastern rainforest in Petén. This area, often mistakenly perceived by the broader Guatemalan population as devoid of human presence, is a critical reservoir of biodiversity and a historical bastion of the Itzá, Mopán, and Ch'olti'; Maya communities. These groups have not only stewarded these lands through millennia but have also faced relentless violence over centuries. From the Spanish conquest, which perpetrated widespread genocide, to the brutalities of Guatemala’s Civil War, and ongoing religious and cultural suppression. The latter has seen recent tragic escalations, including the targeted killings of numerous spiritual Maya elders, custodians of ancestral wisdom on the medicinal and spiritual properties of regional flora. The performance, therefore, stands as a poignant testament to both the ecological and cultural tragedies inflicted upon Petén and its indigenous inhabitants.
Completing the presentation are three cast sculptures that reflect humanity's deep-seated reverence for specific plants, acknowledged for their aesthetic, medicinal, and spiritual qualities. The sculpture 'Esquisúchil' (2022) delves into the complex narrative of the Esquisúchil tree (Bourreria huanita), a species venerated for its healing properties, historically acknowledged by local communities and later by the missionary Hermano Pedro de Betancur. Contrary to the claims of Catholic worshipers who have long insisted he possessed miraculous powers, and that he planted the Esquisúchil trees of the Candelaria Church in Antigua Guatemala, non-religious scholarship has emerged arguing that the rare trees had long grown there before him, and that he simply capitalized on the trees natural healing properties to perform some of the miracles that have been attributed to him.
'Deus Ex Machina' and 'Dea Ex Machina' (both 2021) are hanging sculptures, employing a network of ropes and pulleys to hold bronze cast branches and mask-like resin sculptures. These elements echo the forms of folk saints and deities, traditionally invoked in Guatemalan culture for nature’s protection, carved from the sacred wood of the Erythrina berteroana tree. Symbolically, these works express the precarious balance in which our tropical rainforests — and by extension, the natural world — now hang, suggesting that perhaps only a miraculous intervention - a Deux Ex Machina - can save us from the brink of ecological collapse.

Seen together, the works weave a poignant narrative of reverence, destruction, and the potential for renewal that characterizes our relationship with the natural world. Through the lens of historical narratives and personal stories from the Amazon and Petén regions, Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa invites viewers to confront the fragility of our environment and the resilience of its guardians. His unique assembly of both memory and material serves as a clarion call to acknowledge our past transgressions and to foster a deeper respect for the natural and cultural legacies we stand to lose.