Suenos

One traditional cultural element informing this collaborative work is the Embera-Chami ceremonial use of Brugmansia Insignis plant (“iguaka”), a sacred ingestion ritual performed in order to connect individuals to nature, spirits, and collective memory.

The plant is considered not merely as a botanical entity but as a spiritual agent and master that provides support for seeing, healing, and dreaming. Its flowers face down towards the underworld, establishing a connection to the abyss, the invisible realm, burials, the spirits of the deceased and the vast spectrum of knowledge contained within the earth. It is used ceremoniously to gain guidance in locating precious metals, identifying weeds, and aiding in the sustainable management of the territory.

During “Benakúa” (Brugmania rituals), participants travel back and forth from the underworld in order to gain wisdom; influenced by the hallucinogenic effect of the plant, they go through phases of memory alteration and amnesia, an experience which in turn triggers new understandings of reality, operating through a process of “knowing through forgetting”.