Being back in Cochabamba in Bolivia I was eager to interact on new projects with local artist, to dive as deep in to the culture as I possibly could.
After spending time with my good friend and fellow artist Machy Coors, we decided to apply to enter the urban arts festival BAU which took place in Cochabamba in march 2012. Wa applied together with Natalia Carrizo de Lutzka forming the collective ‘Simi Warmis’ (woman’s mouth in Quechua).
Originally our proposal was centralized around the subject of homo and bisexuality.
We wanted to depict it in a warm romantic setting.
However the subject mater was deemed too controversial for the time and location. (The festival was centralized in a developing neighborhood which was previously a dangerous improved location).
The artist initiative the martadero also wanted to focus on the theme of female empowerment and rights, as the festival coincided with the 200 year anniversary of the war of La Coronilla; where after their brothers husbands and sons had been slaughtered in battles agains the Spanish the woman of Cochabamba took up arms to fight against the Spanish for the independence of Bolivia.
The first mural we worked on depicted females in three life stages the old Cholita carrying the world in her manta, the young street child who makes a living by juggling and the female adults who spurt each other in life. After having worked on this painting and struggled to find our own twist and style in this commissioned peace, we decided that our next mural should depict us more as friends as people who share and the things we cared about. Also something which indirectly showed something that for us signified bisexuality, even if it is not apparent to every passerby.
In the second mural we all got to show of our strengths better than the first I got to focus on figures and adding textiles and the effect this had on a cement wall, Machy was abel to lose her self in geometrical shapes and lines looking for the best fitting surrounding for our couple. And Lutzka was free to design decorative floral patterns for the clothing.
Simi Warmi’s in the press!!
Surya de Wit - Fine Artist 