Afropunk. Ⓐversions about Juyungo.

Abstract

On the 80th anniversary of the novel “Juyungo: Historia de un Negro, una Isla y Otros Negros” by Adalberto Ortiz, a working group composed of university art students engages in a reading to create contemporary images based on the written narrative. We then discuss two key aspects of blackness: representation and the site of enunciation.

Within these parameters, we question the production of contemporary Afro-Ecuadorian art, as it coincides with the final year of the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent. What does the search for identity in Afro-origin traditions imply here and now? Can we still speak of cultural ventriloquism and cultural appropriation in this era where “no culture is closed or identical; rather, all cultures arise from appropriations” (Jenz Balzer).

These illustrations aim to critique the imposed representations of blackness and are not mere visuals accompanying a narrative.

Ⓐ-versions is a series of self-publications created in class based on the creative reading of various authors.