ArteYUNQUE brings artists like Daniel Lind-Ramos and Gisela Colón to El Yunque to explore water, ancestry and ecology through art.
Bringing art into a protected national rainforest—the largest in the U.S. Forest Service system—requires not only intense, multilateral curatorial thinking but also empathy that extends beyond the human to nature itself. It demands stepping outside the dominant anthropocentric paradigm that has historically shaped much of Western art and instead collaborating with nature to create symbiotically rather than in opposition. It is a practice of reattunement to natural rhythms and cycles—a form of listening as much as shaping. “It’s a continuous learning, from nature and from the artist,” Georgie Vega, director and curator of ArteYUNQUE, told Observer. The founder of theartwalkpr, Vega, who has overseen the initiative since its launch, is a well-established figure in the Puerto Rican art community, with over 20 years of experience conceiving and promoting exhibitions across the island’s museums.
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Holding a similarly evocative presence, Edra Soto’s sculptural installation De Río a Río (From River to River) presents three suspended bodies composed of ceramic masks and silk ribbons. The work links river spirits and their relentless flow to experiences of migration, transformation and resilience within Puerto Rican history, weaving a poetic connection between water and movement across time and space. Drawing from her own migratory experience—living and working in Chicago—the masks reflect the processes of physical, emotional and cultural transformation, adopting different personalities to adapt to new surroundings. At the same time, inspired by African and Caribbean traditions and symbologies, the sculpture assumes a new totemic role, serving as a protector and an expression of identity.
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