Team leaders: Angelo Ferrara, Viviana Schimmenti, Santiago Ruiz Lavaselli, Camille Larroque, Nelson Larroque
Team: Botond Kende Gazda, Lauren Fashokun, Nina Hofmann, Will Hayter, Abigail Hinchley
‘The light from the sun: a universal element, plenty of energy and life,’ that is Pacha K’anchai. The meaning comes from the Inca Quechua language and draws out the closeness that this pagan altar to fire has with the element. A wooden structure was clad in clay and heated with a small fire inside, drying the material to make a hardened furnace - a dedication to the power, romance and life-giving capabilities of fire. In much the same way that tribesmen might in their own rituals, the performative aspect of Pacha K’anchai had its ‘shamanic’ creator of the fire pass the flame that was used to burn the wooden interior on to its participants, representing the same significance that humankind once placed on the possession of fire.
Photos: Zsuzsa Darab, Tamás Bujnovszky