As if newly born, wrapped in bright red, nine Guanche incarnations of the Canarian artist Yapci Ramos (La Laguna, 1977) become an invitation to collectively reflect on the processes of creation and social representation of artistic manifestations in the context of public space in the Canary Islands, from a diverse, egalitarian and contemporary perspective.
Artistic representations in public spaces constitute a form of reconstruction of memory, as symbols of the historical heritage of a territory where monuments are erected to the measure of their heroes and victories.
However, The sculptural iconography that in the Canary Islands and the rest of the regions presides over parks and public squares often reveals an idealized story of the past.based on a colonial, androcentric and exclusive ideology, in which contemporary societies look at each other and disagree.
Ramos’s original project takes as a reference the emblematic set of sculptures of the nine Menceyes that presides over the Plaza de la Patrona de Canarias, on the island of Tenerife, to erect nine diverse female identities. This is how the “nine Guanche incarnations” were born, each with its own name based on the anthroponyms, realities and intrinsic features of its territories: Amarca (Icod), Dácil (Taoro), Isora (Adeje), Tagucimota (Tacoronte), Chaxiraxi (Güimar), Cathaysa (Anaga), Ithaisa (Daute), Tegina (Tegueste) and Ramagua (Abona).
After two years of exhaustive anthropological, archaeological and social research on the Canarian aboriginal identity, Monumenta is inspired by the elements, codes and traditions of each of the nine menceyatos or demarcations that made up the island of Tenerife.
