Renan Cepeda “QOYLLUR RIT’I” 14.09 – 19.10.2013

Anthropologists in Art are proud to present:

QOYLLUR RIT’Í
Harvesting the Night at the Star Snow Festival
by Renan Cepeda

WM Gallery Amsterdam 
September 14th – October 19th, 2013
Opening: Saturday September 14th, 5-7 p.m.

Deep in the Andes, in the isolated Sinakara valley near Cusco, Peru, every year – when the full moon rises a week before Corpus Christi – Quechua – and Aymara-speaking Andeans celebrate the legendary festival of Qoyllur Rit’i; the indigenous fiesta dedicated to the Lord of the Star Snow.

Brazilian photographer Renan Cepeda, who has gained considerable acclaim for his unusual photographic techniques such as infrared photography and light painting, has chosen this religious festival as his next subject for the upcoming show at WM Gallery. Braving the bitter cold of minus 10 degrees at an oxygen-depleted altitude of 4700 metres, together with tens of thousands of pilgrims he made his way through the moonlit mountains to pay tribute to the sunrise at the glaciers just below Apu (Mt.) Culquenpunku. Using an old 1952 twin Rolleiflex lens and 120 6×6 cm films, he asked the pilgrims to pose for one minute, shine a flashlight at the subject, and take the shot. All effects are created at the time of the shot, without any further manipulation.

For Qoyllur Rit’í is not simply a manifestation of syncretic (Pre-Columbian and Roman Catholic) religious faith. It is, in fact fraught with the politics of culture, religiosity and opposition to cultural colonisation. Officially, the Church postulated that the origin of the religious pilgrimage started in 1780. In that year, the Indian shepherd boy Mariano Mayta befriended a young mestizo named Manuel while tending his herd of llamas in the Sinakara valley. Manuel fed him and helped him with his herd. Some time later, when Mariano’s father saw the enlarged and well-fed herd of lamas, he told his son to buy himself and his friend a new set of clothes. Carrying a scrap of Manuel’s poncho to Cusco, it turned out that only the Archbishop wore such cloth and, immediately, a Church commission went up to the mountain where Manuel lived. When the delegation came up to the young mestizo, he was shining with a radiant light. On trying to grab hold of him, one delegate found himself holding a crucifix. Mariano, thinking that they had killed his friend, died on the spot and was buried under a rock nearby. Church officials later had a crucified Christ painted onto the rock, which by then had become a place of worship for the local peasant populace.

With QOYLLUR RIT’Í – Harvesting the Night at the Star Snow Festival – Renan Cepeda has captured the magic and mystery that abounds in one of the most spectacular religious festivals in South America, that serves as a vehicle for the prolongation of pre-Columbian cosmology and the cultural defiance of the descendants of the once mighty Inca empire.

Born in Rio de Janeiro from a portuguese family, Renan Cepeda started taking black and white pictures at the age of 11. In the 80s, his experience was enriched with photojournalism at the newspaper Jornal do Brasil. Cepeda has collaborated in the most important Brazilian newspapers and magazines and held the position of correspondent for the French agency SIPA-Presse. Having his full time now devoted to the fine art photography, Renan Cepeda has been recognized for his artistic research on unusual photographic techniques such as infrared photography and light painting. He maintains his atelier in the neighborhood of Santa Teresa, where he fouded with Kitty Paranaguá and Thiago Barros the ATELIE ORIENTE, producing exhibitions and wokshops in its space.

renancepeda.com