Entrevista com Lúcia Hussak van Velthem

Abstract

In this interview, the anthropologist Lúcia Hussak van Velthem discusses her trajectory and the complex Indigenous arts and cosmologies of the Wayana and Aparai peoples. She proposes the concept of an “aesthetics of living,” in which an object’s beauty is intrinsic to its functionality and practical efficacy, challenging the Western notion of art as purely contemplative. Artifacts are described as “quasi-bodies” endowed with agentive capacities; for safe everyday use, these objects display fragmented bodies—such as the serpent-shaped tipiti—so that their agency may be controlled by humans. Velthem details the “mytho-graphic” system, in which the visual repertoire originating from the skin of the great serpent Tulupele captures ancestral powers through a “figurative minimalism,” identifying beings by means of essential and defining features. Technical knowledge, known as tuwaré, is grounded in the vision and protection of the wayanaman, entities that inhabit the pupils and guide artisans in their craft. In museum practice, the researcher advocates for collaborative curatorship that respects the protagonism of traditional communities and the plurality of heritages. She emphasizes the daily struggle against forgetting and the need to attend to cosmological sensibilities—for instance, the understanding that objects kept in storage are “sleeping” and require specific care, including the concealment of sensitive items or their correct physical arrangement according to ritual norms. Finally, she discusses the rise of Indigenous artists in urban centers as a form of political activism and cultural critique, seeking recognition beyond the label of “craft.”