Sánchez Renero – Iluikak

The Nahuatl word tlapializtli refers to the act of keeping or preserving something.
This concept reminds us that the Nahua civilization once possessed both a cultural and a spiritual legacy; as the bearers of this heritage, they had to persevere in order to strengthen the most vitally important elements of their existence. In the Nahuatl language, iluikak means “in the sky.” The Zongolica mountain range in Veracruz is characterized by its high altitude, and clouds are an essential part of its imagery.
The Nahua community living in the sierra is primarily dedicated to agriculture and the practice of religious customs, in which ancestral traditions that keep them connected to nature remain an important part of their particular identity. Iluikak is an attempt to breach the conventions of an assumed identity. It is only at the limits of both the evident and the concealed—in isolating men and women from their everyday contexts and instead portraying them within the space of their imaginations, the space of their
mythical existence—that we can witness the dissolution of constructed identity and thus confront the true uncertainty of human nature.