Soul of the World

The Arhuacos are an indigenous ethnic group of Colombia. This people is concentrated in the north of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, mountainous mountain range of the Andes. The Arhuacos come from the Tayrona culture. Their language, Arhuaco, belongs to the filiation of the Chibchan languages, of the family of Amerindian languages.The Arhuacos would include a number of 35,000 people.

Their structure is complex. Although dispersed, the tribe has a total of 42 distinct communities, but divided into 22 sections:

  The Central Zone:

Nabusimake (Capital of the Arhuacos Nation), Yechikin and Busin, The Western Zone:

Serankua, Windiwameina, Singunei,

Southern Zone:

Zigta, Yeurwa, Gumuke, Yeiwin, Seiarukwingumu, Buyuaguenka and Simonorwa,

The Southeast Zone:

Wirwa, Yugaka, Karwa, Eastern Zone: Sogrome, Donachwi, Timaka, Aruamake, Seinimin

and Izrwa.Synopsis:

Since 2007, the Sierra Nevada Santa Marta region (SNSM), in the north-east of Colombia, has been the object of a vast policy of territorial recovery undertaken during the first term of President Álvaro Uribe Vélez (2002-2006 In the context of its Democratic Security Policy. Behind this facade under construction, another story is emerging, less poetic. The Sierra Nevada represents today a strategic region for the development of the country, not only because of its geographical situation - close to the Atlantic Ocean it forms a vast corridor of traffic from the Venezuelan border, in the east, to Urabá, near the Panamanian border, to the west of the country - but also from the point view of its rich biodiversity and innumerable natural resources. After the military reconquest of the area in 2004, a so-called "social recovery" had to integrate this marginalized region into the national territory. Also, behind the socio-cultural and environmental ambitions displayed at the launch of the program, the Colombian government left Does it today express itself with other "appetites" ?, which reveal the economic ambitions of the State with regard to the region. This area occupies a position too strategic from the point of view of economic development so that the majority of its territory is entrusted to the Indians.

 Since the arrival of President Juan Manuel Santos at the head of the government, the ads are multiplying to foment the tourism and agro-industrial potential of the region. Face

 At this announced opening of the development, some indigenous villages built in particularly strategic zones see today their permanence threatened by

 the economic interests which clash for the control of the territory.

SIERRA NEVADA DE SANTA MARTA is about 17,000 km2. On this vast surface, cohabit a population of a great diversity and juxtaposes a multiplicity of jurisdictions, administrative, political and environmental. In addition to the four indigenous communities, Kogi, Arhuaco, Wiwa and Kankuamo, original peoples of the SNSM.

Sierra Nevada was declared a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1979 by UNESCO. Resolution No. 002 of January 17, 2016, states that "the ban on entry of tourists into the reserve and indigenous territory of the Arhuaco people of the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta", was taken by the Arhuaco Guard of the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta.

The traditional indigenous authorities of the Arhuaco people in the exercise of the powers conferred on the original law, the constitution and other relevant standards, consider as the tourist trade and the presence of members outside the Arhuaco people, especially the activities who contribute to religious indoctrination or other non-traditional uses and customs, has been considered detrimental to the cultural, social and economic integrity of communities and their members, which has long been banned in Arhuaco territory .The Human project to go live with others in a spirit of adventure begins

November 8, 2017. On this first 2-month trip, Colombia is about to live a

radical social and economic change.Here is my feeling.How do the sons and grandsons of these Aboriginal peoples of our new era live?

the transformation of ancestral and mythological culture towards a cultural leisure society like ours?

What impact do these mutations have on the cultural and spiritual scene and on safeguarding their sacred area?

Do these changes leave room for an alternative mutation?

Can the economic emergence of a large country like Colombia be conducive to the production of controlled protection of this universal historical heritage of indigenous peoples?

These are the questions that long-shot photos, with a personal vision in their natural environment, will put in debate. Far from the look of an ethnologist who seeks only the

differences between peoples, far from the witness and voyeurism that does not live action and no longer takes the time to feel and feel, I returned in March / April 2018 as my

habit to try to express myself in the slowness and duration, to grasp the subtleties to find a way, an intimate and unique vision.

Surely similarities to our universalism to all. A work in several parts, and on two different techniques, film photography with film and in

digital.I foresee for the year 2019 3 sessions one in April, September and one in December 2019. The confidence that this family brings to me by opening me their intimacy, will allow an exceptional inheritance under the Prism of the Image, a Heritage common to all, from a mythical people descended from the Mayans and Tayrona Indians, a cultural wealth without equivalence.

A tribute to our purest Universality.