Miguel Alandia Pantoja’s work must be understood both within the political history of Bolivia and in relationship to Mexican muralism. Although its title (“girl” in Aymara) is unremarkable, Miguel Alandia Pantoja’s Imilla (1960) is anything but innocuous. The figure of the seated girl fills the entirety of the nocturnal picture. Her wrapped body appears like a high peak rising out of the altiplano. The imilla’s clothing recalls that of the female militia members in Alandia’s earlier Milicianos (1957). Perfectly symmetrical, her face is as still as her body is motionless. She gazes directly at the viewer though her pupils remain hidden in shadow. She is neither a sleeping child nor a romantic allegory of Indigenous femininity. This imilla is waiting, watching, as vigilant as a sentry in the night. Her precipitous form seems to be more than a compositional preference – the stony solidity of her watchful presence suggests a sisterhood with her namesake: the mountain Imilla Apachita. This Aymara girl, too, is a mountain, a militant, who will defend her people.
This is the first time the work of Miguel Alandia Pantoja is presented at Biennale Arte.
—Lisa Trever
