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| A ceremonial performance at the US Pavilion, La Biennale di Venezia, November 2018 |
US Pavilion "Dimensions of Citizenship"
La Biennale di Venezia
US Pavilion courtyard
2:00–3:30p.m.
Mitakuye Oyasin/ We Are All Related was a ceremonial
performance centered on healing, finding lost cultural knowledge, and telling
the story of climate change through the lens of the Dakota legend of the
Wakinyan/ Thunderbirds and Unktehi/ Water Serpent spirits. The epic battle
between these supernatural beings is a way of describing the catastrophic
effects of climate change through Dakota knowledge.
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| Moment the sun, Anpa Wi, brings out a rainbow in the battle of Wakinyan/ Thundebirds and Unktehi/ Water Monsters |
The power of Dakota language, oral tradition, dance, and
creative and artistic processes–which have been obscured through centuries of
US policies of genocide and assimilation of Indigenous people–were expressed
to call for a profound shift in the evolution of humanity towards a creative,
holistic consciousness.
Mitakuye Oyasin, in the context of the "Dimensions of Citizenship" exhibition at Venice Architecture Biennale, is powerful because the concept, which is the basis of Dakota philosophy, holds that we are relatives of not only our families and other people, but animals, plants, rocks, air, electricity, water - which is life itself - and everything in existence, connected by interrelationships in a continuum of life.
Mitakuye Oyasin, in the context of the "Dimensions of Citizenship" exhibition at Venice Architecture Biennale, is powerful because the concept, which is the basis of Dakota philosophy, holds that we are relatives of not only our families and other people, but animals, plants, rocks, air, electricity, water - which is life itself - and everything in existence, connected by interrelationships in a continuum of life.
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| sage burner sound vessel |
By connecting the concepts of body outward to the cosmos through the sound of the drum, movement, and burning medicines, the ancestors and spirit were invited to the space. My cousin, Adam Genia, an award-winning powwow singer and drummer provided a song which was played on a sound vessel with the sound of a heartbeat.
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| Pipestone Quarry, on the Coteau des Prairies by George Catlin, 1836-37, Smithsonian American Art Museum |
Images of ancient glyphs were drawn on the site of this important US cultural embassy, using a small quantity of canupa/ pipestone pigment.
The Pipestone quarry, located at what is today known as
Pipestone National Monument, is a sacred location in Dakota cosmology that is
tied to our origin stories.
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| Photographs, MHS Collection, photoprint: 'Charles H. Bennett removed these rock panels showing pictographs from the Pipestone quarries at the foot of The Three Maidens in the 1880s.' |
These petroglyphs from the Three Maidens, an important site at the Pipestone
quarry in Minnesota were desecrated and removed in order to be shown in
the St. Louis World's Fair. Seventeen of the original 79 petroglyphs
made it back to the site, and are now on display at the Pipestone
National Monument visitor center.
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| My daughter drawing petroglyph symbols on the courtyard |
When I carve canupa, I save the dust that is a byproduct of the process, as it can be used as a pigment, and, it is so precious that it cannot be wasted. I used some of the pigment to create chalk which my twin daughters and I used to recreate the glyphs looted from Three Maidens on the US Pavilion courtyard site. The images brought indigenous Dakota presence to the site in an unbroken line, at a institution in the tradition of Worlds Fair-type expos, which have had a historically troubled legacy for Indigenous people.
To conclude the ceremonial performance, the Wakiyan again took center stage. The Wakinyan love everything that is clean and pure, and they make their tipis by the tallest cedar trees, which is why we use cedar for purification purposes. Using "cedar" sprigs, the audience and I brushed the building in a symbolic act of cleansing the courtyard site of the US Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale, to clear away old energies and make way for new kinds of creative visions to the space.
This piece is in dialogue with "Acoustic Tipi," which was on site at the Lithuania Pavilion "Swamp Pavilion".
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| Ancient symbols recreated in pipestone pigmented chalk |
To conclude the ceremonial performance, the Wakiyan again took center stage. The Wakinyan love everything that is clean and pure, and they make their tipis by the tallest cedar trees, which is why we use cedar for purification purposes. Using "cedar" sprigs, the audience and I brushed the building in a symbolic act of cleansing the courtyard site of the US Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale, to clear away old energies and make way for new kinds of creative visions to the space.
This piece is in dialogue with "Acoustic Tipi," which was on site at the Lithuania Pavilion "Swamp Pavilion".
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| Acoustic Tipi depicts the battle between the Wakinyan and Unktehi, shown here at the closing of the Swamp Pavilion |
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