KIOSKO Gallery

Santa Cruz de la Sierra / Bolivia

JICHI - CLAUDIA MÜLLER

This project was developed during an artist residency at KIOSKO and is structured around two central threads in my practice: the exploration of bodies of water as living territories, and the presence of mythological entities linked to their protection and memory. The research involved underwater video recordings in various rivers, lagoons, and waterfalls across the Amazonian and Andean regions of Bolivia, including Espejillos (near Santa Cruz), the Río Blanco in Urubichá, Laguna Socorro Suárez, Río Cachuela Yotaú, and Cascadas Cuevas in Samaipata.

The project takes as its starting point the figure of the Jichi, an ancestral water spirit in Amazonian Bolivian cosmology, frequently associated with the anaconda as a guardian of rivers, depths, and vital flows. This entity is invoked in various communities not only as a protector, but also as a manifestation of the spiritual bonds between humans and fluvial ecosystems.

The installation consists of a large hand-embroidered textile, depicting the sinuous body of an anaconda—an emblem of strength, transformation, and subterranean wisdom. Onto this textile surface, underwater footage captured during the residency is projected, creating a sensory interplay between the material and the immaterial, between surface and depth. This layering seeks to evoke the presence of the Jichi as a latent force revealed through the colors, textures, and movements of the water.

JICHI offers an immersive experience that interweaves mythology, ecology, and territorial memory. The work invites us to perceive water not merely as a resource, but as a sensitive and spiritual archive—a fluid body inhabited by ancient presences that resist, protect, and engage with the present.

Versión Español

Written by Rodolfo Andaur

Chilean visual artist Claudia Müller has been immersed in field research through her residency at Kiosko.

As a result of this creative space, she has visited some geographical landmarks in eastern Bolivia such as Espejillos, the Blanco de Urubichá River, the Socorro Suarez Lagoon, the Cachuela Yotaú River, and the Cuevas waterfalls in Samaipata.

Under this scenario, Müller has been tirelessly exploring the various narratives of both hydrographic ecocides, as well as those problems that surround desertification through these landscapes.

On this occasion she presents us with two specific lines of her work. On the one hand, this project contemplates underwater filming in different rivers that come from the Andes, fluvial waters and the Amazon. And on the other hand, it exhibits the relationship of the flow of water inside gutters made with tacuaras collected from a lifeless woody material.

These places of exploration have also been assimilated to the thinking related to the Jichi and the anacondas as guardians of the waters and rivers of countless Amazonian sectors.

In summary, the artist has not only brought about the misfortunes of water fragility, but has also related them to the symbolisms that carry countless towns that today more than ever seek a solution to the endless drought.