This installation of more than 400 engravings by Maestro Antún Kojtom is an event of unfolding in scales: it takes the large form of some forms that are found in small format, being the engravings themselves. We imagine it as the game between consciousness and the unconscious, which is precisely Antún’s exploration in this exhibition: his intimate investigation of the Maya-Tseltal ancestral memory.

We are extremely pleased, as the Galería MUY, to present this great installation, “The carved language of the ch’ulel”. It represents 10 years of artistic elaboration of Master Antún! The prints were made in his workshop in San Cristóbal de Las Casas in the Gráfica Maya press – and by the way given in solidarity by the master of contemporary indigenous art, Nicolás de Jesús. Antún’s son, Alux Antún, has been the Master’s right hand throughout the process. His daughter, Zul, also helped with the printing, and his wife, Zoila, accompanied everything.

The catalog, and the boxes of selections of 13 works, were prepared by La Reci, a publishing house in San Cristóbal, includes brief texts by fans of Mayan art and the creative-investigative-committed practice of Maestro Antún, such as Magno Fernandes dos Reis, Marco Turra, John Burstein, Xun Betán and Nicolás de Jesús. The catalog is an artist’s book, in the sense of having been produced according to the master’s specifications. And we have a complete file of the engravings, this made by Alux Ramírez, for easy interactive consultation and as an important element of “The carved language of ch’ ulel”.

Master Antún defines themes within his graphic investigation of personal/community iconography, which are: the nahual, the shaman, the balam, the woman of light, duality and deforestation. Everything originates from, and ends up being, the energy of ch’ulel, the cosmic vibration.

First, we intuitively experience the work of Maestro Antún – like a ch’ulel’s crush on engraving for us who enjoy it – and then we contemplate sensually and with our minds, this Maya-Tseltal world immemorialized by the artistic mastery of a creator committed to his people and the planet.

Galería MUY
San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, México
Diciembre de 2021