News – Koyoltzintli

BUILDING RADICAL SOIL EXHIBITION THROUGH MAY 14TH, LATINX PROJECT NYU

The billboard titled "Have you forgotten how magical you are" created by Koyoltzintli has been installed in Buffalo, NY as part of @landback.art, a collective effort powered by NDN Collective, For Freedoms and Indigena to uplift Indigenous voices and broaden support for the LANDBACK Movement. Photo by @ameadowsphoto, 2021

The billboard titled "Have you forgotten how magical you are" created by Koyoltzinlti has been installed in Buffalo, NY as part of @landback.art, a collective effort powered by NDN Collective, For Freedoms and Indigena to uplift Indigenous voices and broaden support for the LANDBACK Movement. Photo by @ameadowsphoto, 2021

Buffalo_NY_KoyoltzinltiMiranda-Rivadeneira_HaveYouForgottenHowMagicalYouAre_InCollaborationWith_NDNCollective_Indigena_Landback.Art_Photographer=AlyssaMeadows_IG@ameadowsphoto_032

ARTIST: Koyoltzintli

PROJECT TITLE: A Project on Water Preservation in Partnership with the Seneca Nation in Allegheny and Cattaraugus Territory

We all live because of water, which is a source of healing. It’s also a basic human right, it’s justice, it’s culture, and it needs to be accessible and protected. The Great Lakes represent 20% of the world’s fresh surface water. However, more than 22 million pounds of plastic pollution end up here every year, including contamination from industrial and nuclear waste.

The Allegheny River and the Cattaraugus creek are sacred waters to the Seneca Nation and a source of sustenance for the people and the wildlife. However, pollution concerns, fracking plans, water contamination, forest loss due to invasive insects, and a nuclear waste site threaten the waters and surrounding habitat. Ensuring clean water and protecting it from pollution and waste is one of the fundamental resources we can give to the next generation.

Through A Project on Water Preservation in Partnership with the Seneca Nation in Allegheny and Cattaraugus Territory, I hope to showcase beauty and resilience while also raising awareness about these critical issues facing our lifeline of water. As a society, we must listen to tribal members in their decision-making and to water keepers on ways to protect, empower, and take action in order to ensure that fresh surface water remains accessible and clean, here in New York and everywhere.

Koyoltzintli is an artist, healing practitioner, and mentor living in upstate New York. She grew up in coastal Ecuador. Her work focuses on memory, healing, geo-poetics and storytelling through collaborative and personal narratives.

This project was made possible through we women fellowship

DIA BEACON, Invited guest artist, winter 2021, Bel Falleiros class.

Clockwise, 1. collecting rocks to engage in synesthetic practice, 2. Talk on senses and listening as seeing, 3. Human trail/Animal trail Deer walk group exercise, 4. Discussing drawings, 5. Animal Andean movement.

CITY ARTIST CORPS GRANT CYCLE ONE

As part of the city corps grant, I taught pre-columbian instrument making to the latin and undocumented community in the Bronx as a way to engage with heritage, cultural resiliance and memory.