Tiqui tiqui ti went north (se fue pal norte)

The video installation Tiqui Tiqui Ti went North focuses on the historical and contemporary histories of the Chilean national dance Cueca. Derived from folk tradition and deeply rooted in both urban and peasant culture, it gained popularity as a form of resistance through La Nueva Canción Chilena movement. A movement active from the 1960s onwards until it was heavily oppressed after the events of the coup d’état 1973, which also led to Cueca being co-opted by the Pinochet dictatorship.

Through found footage and material of ceremonies, parades and sound clips, we hear and see a variety of voices and images, amongst others the narrations and performances of folk singer Violeta Parra and the musician and researcher Margot Loyola (herself once a figure in La Nueca Canción Chilena). By a mix of archival footage and newly produced material, we meet the past and the contemporary state, and interpretations, of chilean folkloric music and dance. Tiqui Tiqui Ti went North opens questions of how traditions travel through diaspora in general, and more specifically the Chilean Swedish diaspora of which Solar Villaseca herself is part. The work shows the dance, a partner dance – in some of its many changing forms, most poignantly when danced alone as La Cueca Sola during the dictatorship by women whose partners and family members had been murdered by the regime. Composed around the inherited rhythmical structures of Cueca, the work weaves a montage that tells of a cultural tradition haunted by remembrance, censored by power, shaped by history and geography and empowered through resistance. Text by Vermilion Sands, Afgangs kataloget 2021

●

Poul Erik Bech Fondens kunstpriset 2021
 
Tiqui Tiqui Ti went North er en videoinstallation, hvor vi ”gennem en kombination af arkivisk materiale og nylige optagelser, møder (…) fortiden og samtidens tilstand, samt fortolkninger af chilensk folklore og dans. Tiqui Tiqui Ti went North åbner for spørgsmål om, hvordan traditioner helt generelt rejser med eksilgrupper, og mere specifikt om den chilensk-svenske eksilbefolkning, som Solar Villaseca selv er del af.”, skriver kuratorgruppen bag årets afgangsudstilling, Vermilion Sands, om Villasecas værk.
 
Jurymedlem Iben Mosbæk motiverer valget af Isabella Solar Villaseca værk således:
 
”I Villasecas værk er den chilenske dans Cueca omdrejningspunktet, der favner både historier om tragedie og glæde, mord, modstand og fællesskab. Tiqui Tiqui Ti went North danser os – akkompagneret af sang og musik – på tværs af historien, af landegrænser og kulturer. Den fungerer som en usentimental hyldest til danseglæden, til fællesskabet og den ikke-voldelige protest, der forener en nation og en kultur i sorg og glæde på tværs af tid og sted.”,
 

Jurymedlem Martin Asbæk supplerer med sin oplevelse af værket:
 
“Tiqui Tiqui Ti went North” (se fue pal norte) er et visuelt studie af den chilenske nationaldans. Værket er udvalgt, da det forener og udforsker dansens fortid og nutid i en gribende video, der får mig til at reflektere over, hvordan traditioner kan rumme et fælles sprog og være identitetsskabende.”