YAPCI RAMOS

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MONUMENTA. 2022. MULTIMEDIA INSTALLATION

In 'Monumenta. Nine Guanche Incarnations', I aim to give visibility to the forgotten Guanche woman and question the ways in which the pre-colonial past is represented from a contemporary perspective. Through the observation of various monuments, I undertake a historical analysis to resolve the enigmas underlying the underrepresentation of these subaltern identities.

Guanche women held active roles in the communities of pre-Hispanic Tenerife. With colonialism, the aboriginal society came to be regulated by patriarchal premises that perpetuated certain narratives while obscuring others, leading to a collective amnesia of the otherness. Through an artistic, historical, and social investigation, I developed nine identities inspired by the landscapes of each of the ancient demarcations.

I asked myself, what would they look like? What feelings might they experience? What life stories would they tell? The lack of representation relegates these answers to our imagination. And this is liberating.

‘Monumenta’ could be you and me. Looking back, following our own footsteps we’ve made to reach that essence, that origin, where everything was more genuine. Through embodying them, they get a voice and a place to express themselves, iniciating a path through their stories, territories and feelings. This is how I reencounter these forgotten subjects and I inhabit and honor them.

Public space must be re-appropriated. Each person should be free to reconstruct their own past and formulate alternative narratives. In doing so, ‘Monumenta’ offers a renewed gaze through a cartography of women who represent values that escape from normativity, while claiming for a greater presence of women and subaltern identities in public space.

It is necessary to reconstruct the void.

MUSEO DE LA NATURALEZA Y ARQUEOLOGÍA, 2022, TENERIFE.

Nine complete bodies did Tenerife have,

And all nine were in their own land,

In different regions and places.

And from Güímar, Chaxiraxi the sustainer.

In Tacoronte, brave Tagucimota,

From the state of Anaga, the free Cathaysa.

In Taoro, Dácil, path and way,

Amarca, in Icod, the beautiful one.

The watcher, from Abona, Ramagua, who provides and calls forth.

From Adeje, Isora, the guide of the soul.

From Tegueste, Tegina, strength and home...

(Song I)

ERMITA DE SAN MIGUEL, TENERIFE

Monumenta appears as a possibility of subversion of power structures, while questioning the narratives of the past

Monumenta is based on encouraging the debate around the survival of a series of idealized symbols and images as the only parameters for the construction of cultural heritage, in which the body of the artist herself converts into a channel and terrain of creation to promote reflection on the historical-artistic heritage from a more wide and critical perspective.

Nora Navarro. Cultural Writer

CREDITS

TITLE. MONUMENTA. NINE GUANCHE INCARNATIONS

ARTIST. YAPCI RAMOS

ASSISTANCE. MARINA RIBOT, MARÍA VILA, AND IRIS VERGE

CRAFTSMANSHIP. TALLER AFOCHE (PEDRO BENÍTEZ REYES AND ISABEL PADRÓN HERRERA) DAVID GUIJARRO

DESIGN AND SEWING. GINA BERENGUER BARNILS

MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING. BÁRBARA MATTEL

PHOTOGRAPHY. ENRIC BADRINAS

PERFORMANCE. YAPCI RAMOS

3D SCANNER. LABS3D

DIGITAL MODELING. DANIELA BAZZI & MARIA VILASECA

3D PRINTING. MANUEL ROMÁN CAMACHO

VOICE ASSISTANT. LAVOZDETARA

VOICE AND SOUNDS. YAPCI RAMOS

EDITION AND MASTERIZATION. PICNIC SOUND STUDIO

3D SIMULATION. ADOLF ALCAÑIZ

TECHNICAL SUPPORT. SIMONE ORSO

TRANSPORTATION. LOYTER

EXHIBITION SETUP. ALFONSO DELGADO AND THE MUNA

TEXTS. NORA NAVARRO

CONTRIBUTIONS AND SUPPORT. AYUDA PARA LA INVESTIGACIÓN, CREACIÓN Y PRODUCCIÓN ARTÍSTICAS EN EL CAMPO DE LAS ARTES VISUALES, DEL MINISTERIO DE CULTURA Y DEPORTE, GOBIERNO DE ESPAÑA, 2020.

AYUDA DEL GOBIERNO DE CANARIAS EN LA SELECCIÓN, PROMOCIÓN Y DIFUSIÓN DE PROYECTOS EN RÉGIMEN DE CONCURRENCIA COMPETITIVA, EN EL MARCO DEL PATRIMONIO CULTURAL (CULTURAPOPULAR), 2021.

SUBVENCIÓN PARA LA SELECCIÓN, IMPULSO, EJECUCIÓN Y DIFUSIÓN DE PROYECTOS CULTURALES ENTRE PROFESIONALES, EMPRESAS Y ENTIDADES CULTURALES SIN ÁNIMO DE LUCRO DEL GOBIERNO DE CANARIAS, 2020.

DATA SHEET

Nine 3-D printed sculptures and Sound 28’09”

PRESENTED AT

MUNA - Museo de Naturaleza y Arqueología (OAMC - Cabildo de Tenerife)

Ermita de San Miguel; San Cristóbal de La Laguna, 2023

DOWNLOADS

CREDITS

TITLE. MONUMENTA. NINE GUANCHE INCARNATIONS

ARTIST. YAPCI RAMOS

ASSISTANCE. MARINA RIBOT, MARÍA VILA, AND IRIS VERGE

CRAFTSMANSHIP. TALLER AFOCHE (PEDRO BENÍTEZ REYES AND ISABEL PADRÓN HERRERA) DAVID GUIJARRO

DESIGN AND SEWING. GINA BERENGUER BARNILS

MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING. BÁRBARA MATTEL

PHOTOGRAPHY. ENRIC BADRINAS

PERFORMANCE. YAPCI RAMOS

3D SCANNER. LABS3D

DIGITAL MODELING. DANIELA BAZZI & MARIA VILASECA

3D PRINTING. MANUEL ROMÁN CAMACHO

VOICE ASSISTANT. LAVOZDETARA

VOICE AND SOUNDS. YAPCI RAMOS

EDITION AND MASTERIZATION. PICNIC SOUND STUDIO

3D SIMULATION. ADOLF ALCAÑIZ

TECHNICAL SUPPORT. SIMONE ORSO

TRANSPORTATION. LOYTER

EXHIBITION SETUP. ALFONSO DELGADO AND THE MUNA

TEXTS. NORA NAVARRO

CONTRIBUTIONS AND SUPPORT. AYUDA PARA LA INVESTIGACIÓN, CREACIÓN Y PRODUCCIÓN ARTÍSTICAS EN EL CAMPO DE LAS ARTES VISUALES, DEL MINISTERIO DE CULTURA Y DEPORTE, GOBIERNO DE ESPAÑA, 2020.

AYUDA DEL GOBIERNO DE CANARIAS EN LA SELECCIÓN, PROMOCIÓN Y DIFUSIÓN DE PROYECTOS EN RÉGIMEN DE CONCURRENCIA COMPETITIVA, EN EL MARCO DEL PATRIMONIO CULTURAL (CULTURAPOPULAR), 2021.

SUBVENCIÓN PARA LA SELECCIÓN, IMPULSO, EJECUCIÓN Y DIFUSIÓN DE PROYECTOS CULTURALES ENTRE PROFESIONALES, EMPRESAS Y ENTIDADES CULTURALES SIN ÁNIMO DE LUCRO DEL GOBIERNO DE CANARIAS, 2020.

DATA SHEET

Nine 3-D printed sculptures and Sound 28’09”

PRESENTED AT

MUNA - Museo de Naturaleza y Arqueología (OAMC - Cabildo de Tenerife)

Ermita de San Miguel; San Cristóbal de La Laguna, 2023

SIDE EVENTS

01 amarca, ICOD

Amarca, half earthly, half divine, is an inner landscape of fragility and firmness. It reflects itself in the reliefs of the peaks and ravines of the ancient settlement of Icod. Beautiful and absolute like Plato’s ideas, its beauty’s curse is older than the Drago tree. The same heights that shielded it from the desires of men hastened its disappearance down the slope of oblivion.

A volcano at the earth’s core, Amarca roared and learned to say “no” before its time, but the world was unprepared for the new shapes of the lava born from women’s desire. Legend has it that it ventured into the sea to seek other horizons, with wheat spikes in its shoes so as not to forget the way back to the northern granary.

DATA SHEET

36,7 x 188,6 x 824,27 cm

5’07”

100% PLA filament

Recycled, sustainable, and biodegradable.

02 DÁCIL, TAORO

The story of Dácil, princess of Taoro and daughter of Bencomo, is a free verse from the Antiquities of the Fortunate Islands, the renowned poem by Viana, rhyming with as many legends as the conch shell holds sounds within its cavities. Regal like the pine forest that blankets her cradle, luminous like the invincible Canary sun, Dácil marks her place on earth with the torch pinewood staff symbolizing her reign.

Some claim she was baptized after the conquest as Mencías del Castillo and dressed in goat skins before heading into the next battle. It is also rumored that her name means “step” or “footprint” and that she walks barefoot through the ravines to memorize the maps.

DATA SHEET

59,3 x 180,2 x 69,4 cm

2’24”

100% PLA filament

Recycled, sustainable, and biodegradable.

03 ISORA, ADEJE

Isora, a herder by trade, shapes her daily life with the clay of Adeje's rugged lands, crafting her identity with the letters of a name whose echo stretches to the present. Isora, with the anthroponyms “island princess” or “badlands,” defines her essence: mistress of the volcanic soils she cultivates with her hands, which soothe her hunger and shelter her on damp nights with blankets of goat hair.

Isora lives by the cliffs, confronts her shadows, and weaves her destiny with the loose stones of the path. Each winter, her skin and gaze harden in the cold seasons of Tenerife’s southwest.

DATA SHEET

100,7 x 183,9 x 48,9 cm

3’58”

100% PLA filament

Recycled, sustainable, and biodegradable.

04 TAGUCIMOTA, TACORONTE

Tagucimota, a warrior and Guanche hunter native to Tacoronte, breaks the earth’s crust with the tip of her banot “toasted in fire,” as Viana’s poem recounts, speaking the language of nature to give back what it provides. Rebellious and courageous, Tagucimota belongs to a lineage that memorizes the paths of the cliffs in the palm of their hand to traverse them with the tip of a spear heated in the flames.

Tagucimota gathers medicinal plants to craft ointments and potions. The nakedness of her body, covered in clay, becomes an allegory of Tagucimota blending with the land, through its best and worst harvests.

DATA SHEET

45,8 x 193,2 x 86,2 cm

2’06”

100% PLA filament

Recycled, sustainable, and biodegradable.

05 CHAXIRAXI, GÜIMAR

Chaxiraxi, goddess of the modern neopagan religion of the Guanche People’s Church,sees the moon’s reflection in the waters of the Chimisay beaches in Güímar and holds it in her hands. On this shore of time, the image of Chaxiraxi crystallizes forever, her gaze fixed on the heavens, arms outstretched, beneath a divine phrase carved into the wooden figure: “she who carries or sustains the firmament.”

The mysteries surrounding her arrival on the island are integral to the worship of this revered myth, who paved the way before the Conquest and raised the symbol of the covenant with a new world using a ceramic vessel shaped like the moon.

DATA SHEET

151,4 x 208,9 x 72,6 cm

2’22”

100% PLA filament

Recycled, sustainable, and biodegradable.

06 CATHAYSA, ANAGA

Cathaysa, the Guanche girl, is born in the ancient enclave of Anaga, the arm of Tenerife that points to infinity, its soul rooted in the land of laurels and laurisilva. But it is other arms that bind the fate of the Guanche girl. At just seven years old, she is captured while descending the mountain toward Taganana and sold as a slave by the Castilians in Valencia in 1494.

Prisoner and captive, yet free, her body covers its scars and bites with the fern cloak that warms stolen childhoods, winters in the open, and vigils as a maidservant at the cross of uprooting. Her gaze holds the shape of a shackle, yet she looks straight ahead, unflinching, meeting the eyes that seek to contain her, like the roques or the massifs do.

DATA SHEET

57,3 x 180,9 x 83,3 cm

3’35”

100% PLA filament

Recycled, sustainable, and biodegradable.

07 ITAHISA, DAUTE

The trail of fragments of limpets, shells, and sea snails sedimented along the coast of Daute’s peak traces the path of Itahisa, the marine gatherer of this ancient, secluded haven of shell middens, euphorbias, spurge, and other endemic species. Long before her waters broke, this Guanche princess was condemned to other seas as a child slave sold in Valencia in 1491.

Yet her inner clocks always pointed to the caves in the depths of Daute’s massifs, known as “the wombs,” where wheat and barley were stored. Meanwhile, Itahisa, far from her beaches and corals, caressed her belly and dreamed of a future without shattered mirrors for her children.

DATA SHEET

78,5 x 51,6 x 191,4 cm

3’16”

100% PLA filament

Recycled, sustainable, and biodegradable.

08 RAMAGUA, ABONA

Ramagua, daughter of Princess Dácil and King Bencomo, rulers of the ancient Menceyato of Taoro, came into the world sliding down the bolt of a storm. A princess of Taoro, the crack of her Guanche name means “thunder.” Before tradition bound her in marriage to Antón Martín de Abona after the Conquest, Ramagua would settle by the dock, watching the undulations and courses of the sea without lighthouses.

Thus, her golden hair is entwined with the scent of salt and fish, fishing nets, and the ever-dry air of Abona, steeped in its routines of bait, trawls, and hooks.

DATA SHEET

51,0 x 192,2 x 66,1 cm

3’30”

100% PLA filament

Recycled, sustainable, and biodegradable.

Process

MONUMENTA. 2022. MULTIMEDIA INSTALLATION

It is necessary to reconstruct the void.

Nine complete bodies did Tenerife have, And all nine were in their own land, In different regions and places. And from Güímar, Chaxiraxi the sustainer. In Tacoronte, brave Tagucimota, From the state of Anaga, the free Cathaysa. From the state of Anaga, the free Cathaysa. In Taoro, Dácil, path and way, Amarca, in Icod, the beautiful one. The watcher, from Abona, Ramagua, who provides and calls forth. From Adeje, Isora, the guide of the soul. From Tegueste, Tegina, strength and home...

(Song I)

ERMITA DE SAN MIGUEL, TENERIFE

Monumenta appears as a possibility of subversion of power structures, while questioning the narratives of the past

Nora Navarro. Cultural Writer

CREDITS

TITLE. MONUMENTA. NINE GUANCHE INCARNATIONS

ARTIST. YAPCI RAMOS

ASSISTANCE. MARINA RIBOT, MARÍA VILA, AND IRIS VERGE

CRAFTSMANSHIP. TALLER AFOCHE (PEDRO BENÍTEZ REYES AND ISABEL PADRÓN HERRERA) DAVID GUIJARRO

DESIGN AND SEWING. GINA BERENGUER BARNILS

MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING. BÁRBARA MATTEL

PHOTOGRAPHY. ENRIC BADRINAS

PERFORMANCE. YAPCI RAMOS

3D SCANNER. LABS3D

DIGITAL MODELING. DANIELA BAZZI & MARIA VILASECA

3D PRINTING. MANUEL ROMÁN CAMACHO

VOICE ASSISTANT. LAVOZDETARA

VOICE AND SOUNDS. YAPCI RAMOS

EDITION AND MASTERIZATION. PICNIC SOUND STUDIO

3D SIMULATION. ADOLF ALCAÑIZ

TECHNICAL SUPPORT. SIMONE ORSO

TRANSPORTATION. LOYTER

EXHIBITION SETUP. ALFONSO DELGADO AND THE MUNA

TEXTS. NORA NAVARRO

CONTRIBUTIONS AND SUPPORT. AYUDA PARA LA INVESTIGACIÓN, CREACIÓN Y PRODUCCIÓN ARTÍSTICAS EN EL CAMPO DE LAS ARTES VISUALES, DEL MINISTERIO DE CULTURA Y DEPORTE, GOBIERNO DE ESPAÑA, 2020.

AYUDA DEL GOBIERNO DE CANARIAS EN LA SELECCIÓN, PROMOCIÓN Y DIFUSIÓN DE PROYECTOS EN RÉGIMEN DE CONCURRENCIA COMPETITIVA, EN EL MARCO DEL PATRIMONIO CULTURAL (CULTURAPOPULAR), 2021.

SUBVENCIÓN PARA LA SELECCIÓN, IMPULSO, EJECUCIÓN Y DIFUSIÓN DE PROYECTOS CULTURALES ENTRE PROFESIONALES, EMPRESAS Y ENTIDADES CULTURALES SIN ÁNIMO DE LUCRO DEL GOBIERNO DE CANARIAS, 2020.

DATA SHEET

Nine 3-D printed sculptures and Sound 28’09”

PRESENTED AT

MUNA - Museo de Naturaleza y Arqueología (OAMC - Cabildo de Tenerife)

Ermita de San Miguel; San Cristóbal de La Laguna, 2023

DOWNLOADS

CREDITS

TITLE. MONUMENTA. NINE GUANCHE INCARNATIONS

ARTIST. YAPCI RAMOS

ASSISTANCE. MARINA RIBOT, MARÍA VILA, AND IRIS VERGE

CRAFTSMANSHIP. TALLER AFOCHE (PEDRO BENÍTEZ REYES AND ISABEL PADRÓN HERRERA) DAVID GUIJARRO

DESIGN AND SEWING. GINA BERENGUER BARNILS

MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING. BÁRBARA MATTEL

PHOTOGRAPHY. ENRIC BADRINAS

PERFORMANCE. YAPCI RAMOS

3D SCANNER. LABS3D

DIGITAL MODELING. DANIELA BAZZI & MARIA VILASECA

3D PRINTING. MANUEL ROMÁN CAMACHO

VOICE ASSISTANT. LAVOZDETARA

VOICE AND SOUNDS. YAPCI RAMOS

EDITION AND MASTERIZATION. PICNIC SOUND STUDIO

3D SIMULATION. ADOLF ALCAÑIZ

TECHNICAL SUPPORT. SIMONE ORSO

TRANSPORTATION. LOYTER

EXHIBITION SETUP. ALFONSO DELGADO AND THE MUNA

TEXTS. NORA NAVARRO

CONTRIBUTIONS AND SUPPORT. AYUDA PARA LA INVESTIGACIÓN, CREACIÓN Y PRODUCCIÓN ARTÍSTICAS EN EL CAMPO DE LAS ARTES VISUALES, DEL MINISTERIO DE CULTURA Y DEPORTE, GOBIERNO DE ESPAÑA, 2020.

AYUDA DEL GOBIERNO DE CANARIAS EN LA SELECCIÓN, PROMOCIÓN Y DIFUSIÓN DE PROYECTOS EN RÉGIMEN DE CONCURRENCIA COMPETITIVA, EN EL MARCO DEL PATRIMONIO CULTURAL (CULTURAPOPULAR), 2021.

SUBVENCIÓN PARA LA SELECCIÓN, IMPULSO, EJECUCIÓN Y DIFUSIÓN DE PROYECTOS CULTURALES ENTRE PROFESIONALES, EMPRESAS Y ENTIDADES CULTURALES SIN ÁNIMO DE LUCRO DEL GOBIERNO DE CANARIAS, 2020.