The House Where Words Are Chewed
Aimena Úai
Artist’s country of origen: Colombia
Size: 165 x 230 cm
Year: 2025
Line of Inquiry:
In Moo Buinaima Jofo, Aimema Úai depicts the communal space where mambe, ambil, and word are shared. The work translates a spiritual architecture—the maloka—into pictorial form, merging oil paint with coca leaves and other natural materials. These elements not only reference ritual practices but also embody the physical presence of plants as carriers of knowledge and memory. Through painting, Úai examines how relationships between body, territory, and thought materialize in living matter, positioning coca as a symbol of dialogue and cultural continuity.
The Artist
Aimena Úai
Aimema Úai —The Voice of the Crane— is a contemporary artist, mambeólogo (coca practitioner), and researcher from the Murui-Muina people of the Colombian Amazon. Born in La Chorrera in 1996, his artistic formation is deeply rooted in the ancestral knowledge of his family.
