{"id":1299,"date":"2019-03-12T14:41:12","date_gmt":"2019-03-12T14:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.freerotation.com\/?page_id=1299"},"modified":"2025-06-05T14:10:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T13:10:09","slug":"aboutface-in-peru","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.freerotation.com\/fr\/aboutface-in-peru\/","title":{"rendered":"Aboutface in Peru"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In 2018, Freerotation Artist, Aboutface (Ben Kelley), completed an ambitious and profound inter-cultural collaboration with the indigenous Wampis community in Peru. His project included a journey to Peru in June 2018 where he spent time and connected personally with the community. This was in direct co-operation with our partner charity, Size of Wales<\/a> which supports the Wampis as part of their ongoing work to protect an area of rainforest twice the size of Wales. The project explores the evocative aural terrain of the rainforest and the sacred female songs of the Wampis, and is helping to raise awareness of the urgent threats to the Wampis\u2019 forest home. Ben also raised money through the donation of his artist fee and record sales, and through a crowdfunding project which he set up in support of the Wampi community during the autumn of 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ben has written a beautiful and touching piece about his experience with the Wampi community with beautiful photographic pieces, which you can read below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Los Bosquesinos Project experience: <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Ben\n Kelly, or artistically known as Aboutface, is a conceptual artist and \nmusician that undertakes immersive creative projects that aestheticize \nenvironmental themes, raising conservational awareness and articulating \necological narratives though live music performance and visual art. Ben \noften utilises his dreams as a staring point to develop an idea for his \nprojects, then undertakes on an investigative journey that includes a \nfield trip to capture creative materials such as field recordings, \nanalogue photography, sketches and found objects. These materials then \nform the foundations for a live immersive mixed-media performance and \nexhibition. Ben did not anticipate that a dream of a talking forest, may\n lead him into traveling deep into the Amazonas region of Peru to spend \ntime with the indigenous Wampis community on a project called- Los Bosquesinos, <\/em>in collaboration with Size of Wales. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Los\n Bosquesinos (people of the forests) is inter-cultural collaboration \nwith the Wampis people of Guyabal, Peru, to raise money for the \ncommunity to aid them in their role of guardians of the forest.  \nFollowing time spent in the Rainforest, the project utilises captured \nenvironmental materials for varied creative output: a live immersive \nmusic performance broadcast on NTS radio; a multi-sensory immersive \nexhibition of diverse art works, and evocative music release, all \nraising awareness and funds for the community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\n Wampis are an ancient community that for millennia have preserved an \nancient cultural obligation to eliminate deforestation and maintain the \nforest in balance with all living things. Through their ancient Nampet <\/em>songs\n such as Wancha (Fish) Kutuir (Bird), Pinchichi (Monkey), the Wampis \npreserve their cultural ethos for conservation and empathy for all \nliving things, in balance. I was fortunate and honoured to be allowed \nunprecedented access for a creative project with this amazing community,\n and to be the first person to record these ancient songs, along with \ncapturing the rich acoustic ecology of Rainforest and communal habitat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Following\n an arduous journey that included 5 hours in an off-road vehicle and 4 \nhours by chalupa (boat) though to the Rio Santiago, I arrived in \nGuyabal, a small Wampis community in a beautiful setting, occupied \nacross both sides of the river.  When I first arrived I was terrified, \nthe Wampis people were welcoming but I sensed some apprehension, it had \ntaken many months of discussions and community meetings to grant this \nunprecedented access to the community and I suspected it wasn\u2019t \nunanimously accepted. However, following my initial research I was aware\n of Amazonas indigenous peoples\u2019 affinity with music, so I decided in \npreparation for the trip, to learn the Quena flute- a traditional \nmusical instrument from Peru that I hoped was played in the community. \nThis was proven to be a valuable assumption as important members of the \ncommunity not only played these instruments, but also made their own \nsimilar instruments from local wild Bamboo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along\n with the fantastic work of my interpreter Carlos (also my Quena flute \nteacher), we developed a strong rapport through the universal language \nof sound and music- the family we stayed with were all musicians and \nperformed in a band called Guyabita. We often stayed up late playing \ntogether with the rich acoustic ecology of the night-time forest \nperforming alongside us; the community couldn\u2019t believe that a \u2018gringo\u2019 \ncould play the Quena flute! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Different\n members of the community took us deep into the forest to capture the \nsounds of nature and 35mm photography, communicating to each other \nthrough a series of whistles very much like birdcalls, and often \naccompanied by two beautiful birds that looked a little like grouse. \nThese grouse followed us everywhere and slept near us; we we\u2019re later \ninformed by one of the leaders Fernando that he requested for them to \nprotect us from snakes or other dangerous animals, to raise an alarm if \none approaches. This was demonstrated when we heard the birdcall alarm \none night while we slept- the precarious moment when wildlife visited us\n in the night looking for a meal. This is a great example of the Wampis \nperception of nature: all members of the community, human or animal have\n a role to play for benefit of the shared habitat. I think this is a \npowerful lesson to global communities who perceive nature as commodity \nnot ecology.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 We\n explored many areas of their territory- we swam in pristine rivers with\n fish gently nibbling on our skin, and walked to sacred sites that have \nnever before been visited by a person outside of their community. One of\n these was called La Tuna<\/em>, the sacred waterfall a tough 6 hours \nwalk in the rainforest to reach. Before we could enter, we had to \nparticipate in a ritual to ask permission to enter the sacred pools of \nwater; the moment felt surreal but was a beautiful experience. The trek \ntook every last drop of energy from us, but we were informed that this \nwas required as a sacrifice to the forest so we may in turn, receive \ngood recordings and safe passage. Over the next 7 days I captured the \nmost amazing environmental recordings of wildlife, rainforest and their \ncommunity; the Wampis live with an ideology of balance similar to Karma,\n but more specific to sustainability and conservation of the forest. Not\n to scare my loved ones with detail, but there were a few close calls \nwith a poisonous snake, a highly venomous spider and a few precarious \nwalks along mountain ravines, but all in all I was looked after with the\n upmost care; the Wampis told us the forest gave blessings to the \nproject. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most privileged of recordings I captured was the Wampis Nampet \u2013 <\/em>ancient\n songs from the perspective of being an animal in the forest and \nconservation of habitat, no one outside of their community has heard \nthese so it was a great honour. Upon reflection, it makes me quite \nemotional that they trusted me enough for me to capture these songs and \ntrust to utilise in the right way, a big honour and responsibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On\n our final day with the community, a big party was arranged where all \ndifferent families cooked us food, shared Masato – a fermented wine made\n from yucca, and sugar cane rum called Junki. We played music together \ntill the stars long illuminated the night sky and many tears were shed. \nThe Wampis are so very kind but so very poor, I could see on occasion \nthey would not eat so we could, this was a powerful thing for me to \nexperience as a western white male of relative privilege, it humbled me \ngreatly. The Wampis are enduring allot of hardship but In spite of this \nthey are warm, generous and incredibly connected to the natural \nenvironment, probably more than we could every imagine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the 7th<\/sup>\n July at Freerotation Festival in Wales, I performed music alongside the\n sounds of the rainforest and the Nampet songs. Like in the Rainforest, I\n also was playing the Quena flute, this evoked feelings of returning to \nthe community and playing alongside them once more. The performance was \nquite emotional for me which made it very challenging, but upon \nreflection I feel this melancholy was required in order to reflect all \nparts of the narrative I was trying to articulate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following\n the performance airing on NTS radio, I collected almost \u00a3900 of \ndonations; this is a relatively substantial amount for the community. \nThe utilisation of raised money will be discussed and scrutinised with \nboth charities to try to affect a legacy of change and empowerment in \nthe community, towards a self-sustaining future. Moving forward, I shall\n be exhibiting a multi-sensory exhibition at LCC, University of the Arts\n London next year, I am in talks to potentially collaborate on a charity\n Rainforest immersive dance\/theatre project, and finally will be \nreleasing music using the sounds of the community on my Coordinates \nrecord label, all of which I hope to raise additional funds and \nawareness with the support and guidance of both Size of Wales and Forest\n Peoples Programme, to gain the best exposure and invest the donations \nto facilitate the strongest legacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\n community asserted that the primary threats in their community are \naccess to clean water, and the retention of Wampis culture though \neducation. Currently the community is only funded for 1 teacher in their\n schools but require 5; funding is so critical that a teacher has not \nbeen paid in over 5 months. So the money raised will be used to assist \nthe Wampis to develop fresh water infrastructure, and to help fund a \ntechnical school to teach traditional Wampis techniques of weaving, \ninstrument making and crafts; the retention of Wampis cultural identity \nand ancestral knowledge is vital to the preservation of a depleting \nrainforest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aside\n from raising funds for the community, the project\u2019s on-going aim is \npose a question about our role in the global ecology as consumers; how \ndo our daily choices and attitudes affect the delicate ecology of global\n forests. If my work in anyway can stimulate this consideration in \naudience or recipient, I would consider the project a success.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\n Wampis unique conservational culture is under threat from a polarising \nideology- the short-term urge for commercial profits and consumerism, \nwhich has now, lead to devastating rates of deforestation and I suspect \ncontributing to the reduction of governmental support for the \ncommunities living in the Rainforest, facilitating poverty and \nconsequently an urge for forest peoples to monetise the natural \nresources available to them, thus contradicting their ancient culture of\n sustainability that must be heart breaking for them.  It was my aim to \naestheticize my experiences immersing in their beautiful culture and \nhabitat to try to stimulate a feeling of global inter-connectivity, \nalong with presenting their fundamental ideology of nature \u2013 that it is \nnot for us, but we are a part of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yuminsuajme\n (thanks in Wampis) to the amazing Wampis community, you\u2019re kindness and\n humility will always be in my heart; this is not the end but only the \nbeginning. To listen to the performance and read more, visit https:\/\/www.aboutfacemusik.co.uk\/los-bos<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In collaboration with charity Size of Wales<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supported by: <\/em>
Carlos \u2018Canti\u2019 Saldana \u2013 Peruvian musician from Lokandes<\/a><\/em>
Shapiom Noningo Sesen of the indigenous Wampis Nation, Peru.<\/em>
Forest Peoples Program<\/a><\/em>
The London College of Communication (UAL)<\/a><\/em>
NTS Radio<\/a> <\/em>
Freerotation<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2018, Freerotation Artist, Aboutface (Ben Kelley), completed an ambitious and profound inter-cultural collaboration with the indigenous Wampis community in Peru. His project included a journey to Peru in June 2018 where he spent time and connected personally with the community. This was in direct co-operation with our partner charity, Size of Wales which supports […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1299","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","blog-blocks-layout","blog-style-imgblock","","blog-alt-odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freerotation.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freerotation.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freerotation.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freerotation.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freerotation.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1299"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.freerotation.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2720,"href":"https:\/\/www.freerotation.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1299\/revisions\/2720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freerotation.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}