Mythological imaginings
Astrid Blazsek-Ayala
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Astrid Blazsek-Ayala. Contrasting symbols of Greek antiquity with Mayan cultural practices.
“In this work, I explore the crossing of one culture by another and the intersections, omissions and fading of a culture. To develop the project, I worked with professional craftsman, Pedro Mendoza from Park Colón in Guatemala City, Guatemala. I provided him with a written description of specific figures from Greek mythology, as well as an image of an artefact or sculpture depicting each character. He was instructed to make a human size piñata, a traditional papier-mâché container, for each mythological figure.”
The piñatas are intended for fiestas. They are ephemeral structures, created to be destroyed. The form and decoration of each piñata is the craftsman’s interpretation of the characteristics of each mythological creature. The piñatas represent the creativity and ingenuity of the Guatemalan craftsman, as well as reveal a particular Guatemalan interpretation of the characters from Greek mythology. This project contrasts the imagination of a person with Mayan cultural heritage, such as Guatemala, with fantasies from Greek antiquity, a symbol of Western civilisation.
The photographs of the created sculptures were made in public spaces of Guatemala that have references to classical antiquity or the mythological figure.
Astrid Blazsek-Ayala is an economist and artist from Guatemala. She has a PhD in Economics from University of Navarre, Spain (2010), and holds a degree in Advanced Studies in Photography and Management of Photographic Projects from La Fototeca and the University of San Carlos de Guatemala (2016). She has also studied several subjects in Node Center. She has participated in exhibitions in Antigua Tipografía Sánchez & De Guise (2020), Espacio Satélite (2018, 2019), Museo Arte Guatemala (2018) and Fototropía (2016). Her work is part of the publication Prisma Volumen II (2018). In 2017, she co-founded the Collective Agalma, Guatemala.
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