Plinio Villagrán Galindo, E-III-3

Curators: Agustin Jais and Tam Painé Ciai. Matienschön, 2018.

E-III-3 is the classified name of one of the mounds of the Archaeological site of Kaminaljuyú (Hill of the Dead) located under present-day Guatemala City. Although the mound no longer exists in its visible part, there are the lower layers where the tombs of the first rulers of the pre-Hispanic city are located. What remains of the mound is paradoxically located a few meters from a cemetery that holds bodies believed to be of many of the disappeared victims of state violence during Guatemala’s armed conflict. It is currently a space for multiple investigations, both archaeological and forensic.

Plino Villagrán Galindo (Mexico/Guatemala, 1979) recreated one of the first excavated layers of the disappeared mound, before being destroyed. The site-specific installation, in plain white, brought the archaeological site as a reflection on death, violence and memory. It linked together layers of unresolved conflict in Guatemala: the European colonisation, the erasing of memory by modern urban development, and the violence during Civil war.

E-III-3 was the third and last phase of Matienschön’s 2017/18 International Residency program. Two talks and four concerts were held inside the installation:

– Two open talks, presenting Dr. Bárbara Arroyo (former leader of the archeological mission at Kaminaljuyú), Luis Fondebrider (President of EAAF, internationally renowned forensic anthropology team that worked to identify the NN bodies), the artists Cristina Piffer, Gabriel Chaile and Mariana Corral, Anabella Museri (CELS) and Paula Baró (MARTE/CCM).
– Four concerts curated by KLAUSS, presenting Nicolás Aimo, Ariel Raguet, Salah Deux & Chandal
– A videomapping by Maximiliano Bellmann, presented by Espacio Plá.