Diana Rico Muñoz‘s project, A Hybrid Altar to Coca, is the latest in a series of works that intend to address the misunderstandings, clash of values, and (potentially) disastrous consequences that have so far been inherent to the Western (mis)understanding of the coca plant, due to its association with cocaine. Between narco culture at one extreme and the very sacred Indigenous culture of coca at the other, there is another reality growing and evolving, which is the social appropriation of the vast cultural heritage of this plant by urban dwellers, creating new cultural expressions of coca.
This year she will gather the bundle of elements that will constitute the altar. This will begin with deep listening sessions with Indigenous colleagues of 4Direcciones that have moved to the city from Sierra Nevada, Tierradentro, and Amazonas. These sessions to listen to archival material are in themselves a ritual that involves the use of coca. We then activate a word circle, inviting a diverse group of experts in different fields — archaeologists, linguists, cooks, artists, musicians, scientists, activists, and Indigenous authorities — to engage in a conversation about what objects and tools to include in this altar. This system of collective curatorship has been a research tool used in the process of Coca Files, where she and her collaborators use the technology of coca to activate memory, synchronicity, coincidence, and all the intangible properties of the plant entity that are in the center of Coca Culture.