Chonon Bensho and Pedro Favaron
Fundación Cervieri Monsuárez (UY)
ArtNexus, #126 (June-November 2026)

Since its founding just two years ago, Fundación Cervieri Monsuárez has been committed to mapping a cartography of contemporary art that is attentive to its context. An art that places its focus on both the materials and the territory. It is deeply rooted in what is native and Latin American, tied to the complexities and difficulties that such an endeavor inevitably entails. The work being done here seeks to establish a sense of place, drawing attention to the intricacy of local traditions and the challenges of creating art that is both contemporary and grounded in regional realities.

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The exhibition Maloca. Cosmopoéticas de la Amazonía peruana (Maloca. Cosmopoetics of the Peruvian Amazon) belongs to a pair of artists: Chonon Bensho, a Shipibo-Konibo artist whose name means “swallow of the medicinal fields,” and Pedro Favaron, a Lima-born academic and artist who has become part of the Shipibo family and culture under the name Inin Niwe, meaning “perfumed wind of medicine.” The boundaries of their partnership –as much affective as academic and professional– as well as the borders of their artistic production, are intentionally blurred, so visitors are invited to gradually discover and delineate the personal from the collective, the individual from the communal, as they move through the exhibition.

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The indigenous Shipibo-Konibo nation consists of around 35,000 people living in the Peruvian Amazon. This community is especially recognized for its expertise in medicinal and ethnobotanical knowledge and is also culturally renowned for its abstract geometric designs known as kené. The Shipibo-Konibo are primarily a fishing community, living along the banks of the Ucayali River and its tributaries, such as Aguaytía, Pisqui, and Tamaya, where their way of life is deeply intertwined with the rhythms of the river and the surrounding rainforest.

 

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Dominating the large, double-height gallery space stood Maloca (2025), a monumental structure made of straw and wood and built following the archetypal model of an Amazonian house-refuge. This shelter was covered on the outside with beadwork featuring an abstract geometric design (kené shewa), a pattern that functions as a code connecting and transmitting the spiritual knowledge derived from the flora and fauna of the Amazon. The maloca was presented as a place of protection and shelter, bathed in the warm, natural light poured through the space. Surrounding it, as if standing guard, were a series of hummingbirds and sunflowers, also crafted from beads, lending the landscape a sense of protection and vibrancy, as if these guardians were watching over the entire installation.

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Inside the maloca, the space became more intimate and welcoming. The structure invited us to sit, rest, and remain in silence –heightening our other senses, such as smell and hearing. The straw emitted a potent aroma of fresh grass and medicinal plants (noi rao). As our eyes adjusted to the soft light, we began to perceive music and chants (Bewá, 2025) coming from another culture (Shipibo-Konibo) in a language foreign to us. Despite the linguistic and cultural barriers, there is no doubt that the maloca called us to enter another state of consciousness. One more open to introspection and slowing down. We were encouraged to pause and inhabit another sense of time.

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Hanging on the gallery walls were embroideries created by Chonon Bensho as part of her series Niwe jonibo (The Aerial People) (2024). These images illustrate the Shipibo-Konibo cosmology, drawing on ancestral knowledge passed down through generations and dreams that connect them with suprasensible worlds. These textiles thus create a dialogic threshold between the sensory and the spiritual worlds.

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The delicacy and balance of the embroidery convey a sense of calm and communion with nature and the cosmos. The compositions are mostly symmetrical, combining figurative elements with abstract geometry. These patterns are characteristic of Shipibo-Konibo cultural identity and were declared National Cultural Heritage by the former National Institute of Culture of Peru in 2008. The balanced, symmetrical designs reflect the importance that this culture places on harmonious coexistence with the land and with respect for nature and other living beings. For this community, humans, plants, animals, waterways, land, and all natural elements exist in a relationship of equality. Thus, we must all coexist in balance, without the exploitative use of resources. Their bond with nature and territory is deeply affective.

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The motif of the hummingbird appears repeatedly in many of these works. In Niwe Jonibo, one can observe how the density and arrangement of the different elements and patterns used to fill the figures vary depending on the substance they represent. For example, the earthly and vegetal elements, which occupy the lower third of the textile, are rendered more densely and compactly, while the upper portion, corresponding to the element of air, contains sparser, almost imperceptible interventions. Through such details, one can visualize and better understand the Shipibo ordering and comprehension of the cosmos, as expressed through their textile art.

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Finally, in the lower gallery, two documentaries about the Shipibo-Konibo nation, directed by Pedro Favaron, were screened. In particular, Meraya –without dialogue or voiceover– manages to convey a different conception of time and space, in which materials and substances take on new dimensions. This audiovisual piece allows for a deeper connection to an understanding of the culture and worldview of these people, helping us perceive and untangle the installation in the main hall with heightened sensitivity.