Jairo Palchukán

ARCHETYPE. Ancestral artist. Mother Earth evoker. Creator of native instruments and traditional melodies. PERSONAL JOURNEY. My name is Jairo Palchukán, and I was born in the Sibundoy Valley, Putumayo (Colombia). From the hand of my artisan, indigenous parents, I learned to love the traditional sounds, the woods, the vines, the reeds and the seeds that shape the sound and thought of our ancient heritage. From an early age, I began exploring art, crafts and music. My experience as an artist moves from the distant lands of the (Bengbe Uaman Tabanok) Valley of Sibundoy to the great city of the capital district (Bogotá). My artistic, craft, and musical work is focused on evoking the ritual ceremonies of the Kamëntsá community and its traditional festivals, especially the Big Day (Clestrinye) or carnival of forgiveness. My artistic works and instruments of wind and percussion imitate the sounds of Mother Earth. They have been inspired and recreated, an allegory to the song of the birds, the whisper of the wind, the strong passage of the waterfalls, the great song of the shamans and the wisdom of the Taitas and Maimas that still continue to conserve its ancient uses and customs. For study purposes, I created the Taller Putumayo Andino, where I have dedicated myself exclusively to the design, creation and execution of musical instruments and the creation and investigation of objects and elements that Mother Earth offers for the creation of ancestral artistic works. Putumayo Andino Workshop is a space for art and meeting their cultural traditions, thus strengthening the education of their indigenous people. I co-founded Grupo Putumayo with my brother William Palchukán in 1985 thanks to our desire to perpetuate indigenous melodies from the Amazon through ancestral instruments, part of the cultural legacy received in ritual ceremonies, traditional festivals, and from the same craftsmanship of their communities. My trajectory has great recognition from the Kamëntsá indigenous people for being a cultural manager of art and ancestral music and for the participation with my artisan work in innumerable musical events and artisan exhibitions of local, national and international order, among which stand out: 2018, collective exhibition in Escuela de Artes y Oficios ESCAROF, 2016, collective exhibition in Academia de Artes Guerrero in Bogotá, D.C., with recognition for creating sound, innovative and investigative work, 2013, winner of the incentive award for the 3 best artists and artisans in Bogotá organised by IDARTES. In my artistic performances I create a journey that invites us to return our gaze to ancestral thought. A journey in which, through magical songs and sounds, you feel the wind (binye), the water (bejay), the fire (iñe) and the earth (fshants): healing forces and energies that have been part of our existence, directing us in the art of healing to live beautifully with cosmic and spiritual beings.
ROLE. Medicine man. Guardian and musician of sacred ceremony space.