Paillafil’s sculptures are two “chemamüles” and they depict the harmony between woman and man that comprises everything. “Every statue is created from a single log that is never cut down, but that falls naturally,” the artist explains, “this is a celebratory gesture of a Mapuchean’s spirit, the abandonment of his material body, through the phases of its existence that pass from one dimension to another.” The subject of this passage is the spiritual significance of the two totems that in Mapuchean culture are a portal, a bridge between the past and the present through which the spirit remains in contact with the earth element in its journey toward eternity.
Until Wednesday, August 5, the day of the opening ceremony and delivery of the two statues in the space in front of the Chile Pavilion, Antonio Paillafil will explain to visitors the significance and the ancestral techniques of Mapuchean art.