Draft:Edgar Calel

Édgar Calel (b. 1987) is a Maya-Kaqchikel visual artist and poet from Chi Xot, San Juan Comapala, Guatemala. He is known for using contemporary art as a means of communicating the Maya-Kaqchikel cosmic worldview, traditions, and rituals to new publics beyond his native region. His poetry and film work [               ] Collections Tate, UK Rijkscolectie- National Collection of the Netherlands, Netherlands Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain National Gallery of Canada.

Biography
Édgar Calel was born in 1987 in Chi Xot, San Juan Comapala, an indigenous Maya Kaqchikel community in the highlands of Guatemala, a community which is "distinctive for the way they have received contemporary influences without ceasing to belong to the tradition of popular art". At age 19, Calel received a scholarship to study at the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas “Rafael Rodríguez Padilla” in Guatamala City.

Following his studies at ENAP, Calel traveled throughout Central America developing his practice. In 2008, Calel was invited to a residency program at the Escuela de Arte Espira/La Espora in Managua, Nicaragua. From there, he went on to further residencies throughout Latin America, including in Córdoba, Argentina and Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

Work
Calel works in various media, including painting, installations, videos, and performances, with an enduring focus on the ancestral culture and indigenous experience of the Maya Kaqchikel community. His work is noted for incorporating the Kaqchikel cosmic worldview, spirituality, rituals, and communal practices and using contemporary art to transmit these aspects to a wider public. His works often draw attention to the violence, racial discrimination, and exclusion faced by indigenous communities in modern Guatemala, particularly in the course and aftermath of the Guatemalan Civil War.

In 2021, Calel garnered media attention due to the novel approach to art custodianship in of his installation, “‘Ru k’ox k’ob’el jun ojer etemab’el’ (The Echo of an Ancient Form of Knowledge’)". Recognizing that the installation, which incorporates Maya-Kaqchikel rituals blessings, cannot be reduced to its physical form, the Tate worked with Calel and the Proyecto Ultravioleta gallery to establish a unique custodial agreement in which the Tate acquired the installation, without owning it outright, for a period of 13 years (a number corresponding to the 13 joints of the human body in the Mayan cosmic worldview).  Speaking on the acquisition of Calel’s installation, Gregor Muir, Tate’s Director of Collection, said:

“Functioning like altarpieces on which we see sacrificial fruits and vegetables, his arrangement of rocks with all their associated rituals challenge the very concept of what it is to own something. The work purposely asks us to redefine collecting through a custodial agreement whereby the Tate retains a direct line to the artist and the Maya community. While we can never own Calel’s installation, we have much to learn from its intrinsic questioning.”

According to a statement by Tate, once this 13-year custodianship of the work ends, "a new agreement will be made with the artist and his community, either to renew this custodianship, to pass it on to another institution, or to return the elements of the work to the earth".

Collections Tate, UK Rijkscolectie- National Collection of the Netherlands, Netherlands Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain National Gallery of Canada, Canada Fundación Teor/ética, San José, Costa Rica MADC Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, San José, Costa Rica Kadist Foundation, San Francisco, USA