Jaroslava Šnajberková

KÁGGABA

CONCEITO

The video installation invites us to a doctoral project, whose theme is to investigate the possibilities of displaying and presenting the stories of native communities in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia, through analogue and digital media. The records were carried out among native communities in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in the years 2019–2022. The film provides an audiovisual experience by telling the story of the Kággaba community in a specific way.

Kággaba means human and teaches us the mastery of understanding the world as a living organism. The film’s multiple layers evoke the multiplicity of experience and also refer to ritual masks, which are an imaginary portal to the wisdom of the ancestors and their mysteries. To give the presentation an air of mystery that reflects the enigmatic quality sometimes connected to indigenous knowledge, subtle storytelling techniques will be used, allowing the viewer to piece together the narrative and encouraging curiosity.

The opening images are complemented by Saga Mercedes singing in the Kággaba Chibchan language by the river. Water represents the feminine element. Water appears in the video in several modifications—in the river and the sea. Kággaba spiritual leaders Mámas consult water on everything because the water communicates to them; they read from the bubbles. Water also represents the body’s blood. Thus, the human body could be used to illustrate the fundamental Kággaba belief that the Earth, like the human body, is a single entity. The body’s arteries move like rivers throughout the planet. Water remains symbolically associated with women in general. Given that the sea is the source of all life, it can be interpreted as an elderly woman, a lagoon that holds the water of a mother figure.

An accompanying artifact will be take-away photographs, which the visitor can take as a souvenir, along with additional information as an invitation to follow the doctoral research and its development online.

Palavras-chave: Videoarte, Média, Digital, Analógico, Fotografia, Indígenas.

INSTRUÇÕES DE UTILIZAÇÃO/USUFRUTO

Please take an original photograph with a QR code as an invitation to join the doctoral research later.

OBJETIVO DE INTERVENÇÃO/COMUNICAÇÃO

The video evokes a dreamy atmosphere and the spirit of Kággaba. The interweaving of two image layers does not leave the mind at rest, but the long sequences of photographs in the background have both a meditative and grounding effect. Analogue photography is the concept of the source or root of the following digital image. The perceptual effect refers to the intellectual character of the community. Controlling the thoughts is essential, and, at the same time, thanks to sound perception, it stimulates the viewer’s curiosity and desire to see more. The installation is inviting the audience to a doctoral project, the topic of which is to investigate the possibilities of displaying and presenting the stories of native communities through analog and digital media. Therefore, the film will also feature completely conventional sequences, in addition to traditional ones that we may or may not associate with native culture.

TECNOLOGIAS E TÉCNICAS UTILIZADAS

Analogue photography, digital video, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere, and digital print.

Diário Digital de Bordo: https://fromtheheartoftheworld.wordpress.com

Jaroslava Šnajberková

graduated in 2010 from the Film and Television Academy of Performing Arts in Prague with a Master’s degree in Photography, and since 2021 she has been a PhD student at the University of Algarve in Portugal, in the Media-Digital Art program. She has dedicated herself professionally to photography as a freelancer, working in the fashion industry internationally and on fine art photography projects. Since 2019, she has been involved in a documentary portrait photography project that comprises continuous records of life among native peoples living in Colombia, which is also the subject of her doctoral project. Jaroslava comes from the Czech Republic, and since 2012 she has been living in Berlin, Germany.