Encounter with Lito Mille in Santiago

Exhibition “Wirtral: Urdimbre Incandescente” by Lito Mille. I stumbled into this sublime exhibition organized by the Corporacion Cultural Las Condes and after performing my own unguided interpretation of the painted and woven works within approached the curator in a tiny office next door about purchasing some of the pieces. She connected me directly with Lito, a Chilean artist and, as it turns out, Kinesiologist, of about my age who has devoted the last 26 years of his life to the study of Mapuche weaving, semiology, cosmology and cultural tradition. He has pursued an ethnographic approach to developing his understanding, directly interviewing artisans and living members of the various enduring Mapuche cultures that have thrived along the 4,000 km band of fertile lands stretching from the Andean peaks across the foothills and valleys, brush lands, steppes and forests down countless river valleys to the coastal hills, beaches and plateaus for thousands of years as a coherent cultural sphere with a common language shared by groups who developed their particular customs according to the specific geographic and bioclimatic zone within this phenomenal latitudinal and longitudinal cross-section they each chose to assimilate and inhabit. The cultural continuity, integration and differentiation here remind me of the various tribes of Pandora contrived by James Cameron and his creative team for the Avatar franchise. Like Aiwa, they each share a deep and sustaining connection to the distinct realms of their geographic universe, animated by the four seasons, initiated by Venus—the lonely morning star—and sustained by the mother, the vessel in which all is made and contained and passed on. Lito sends nearly half a day painstakingly explaining the symbolism and meaning of Mapuche textiles to me. We push Google Translate to its limit and beyond as we weave concepts from multiple languages, including Mapuche dialects it does not understand into the elaborate tapestry of our own conversation. At one point Lito gestures for my hand and grasps it, turning it sideways interlocked with his own. He positions our thumbs in rotational alignment and reveals the origin of the symbol for exchange and connection. We observe that the piece celebrating this idea is thus fully present in time, a necessary condition for discussion and change. The symbol prominent in that painting is the serpent, who symbolizes through its movement the act of weaving itself—which is the same as speaking and communicating for the Mapuche. Lito looks directly into my eyes throughout our discussion, especially when conveying the essential ideas of the Mapuche—“people of the earth”. I eventually apprehend that this too is part of the intent of the exhibit: to follow their custom of writing and speaking directly through their textiles and with their voices, as the weaving is the foundation of their language and the vessel through which their wisdom is iteratively recreated over and over throughout each of their lifetimes and between generations. We are both at times overcome with the emotional power of the exchange. It is an experience that will impact me for the rest of my life. I choose two works to bring to my own universe in Oregon:  the painting of the fundamental human—in purple, complete with Mente (mind), corazon (heart), limbs and hair, which extends out like roots or the rays of the sun to connect the mind to the world and to others—and the painting of the serpent—the great symbol of communication, connection and change for the Mapuche. I am changed by the work and wisdom Lito has shared. I think he too is changed with the affirmation I am able to provide for his effort, thought and dedication to understanding and interpreting the culture of some of his ancestors. Toward the end, he turns the painting of the human upside down and explains that this is also the symbol for phyto- vs zoo- when upright, commenting that zoo-biology evolved from phyto-biology and that the two are therefore interwoven. He points to a simpler textile with what I now perceive as the human symbol arrayed in a continuous linear, interconnected band, only now I see that it is representing the continuum of plant and animal life and their interlinkage. I perceive then all the more why weaving was selected as the mode for communicating the wisdom of a thousand human generations—the interconnectivity and reciprocal and inverted content is inherent to the craft itself. It is an analogue for the abyss of the universe whence matter manifests and with it complete meaning as both form and space between become, and are named.