juan alonso

NUMINA
Photography, Photosculpture, Photobook, 2019.


Numen (plural numina) is a noun that comes from Latin, which originally referred to Roman deities, but is currently used by sociologists to talk about the idea of ​​magical power in an object.

This project starts from an investigation around various Latin American pagan saints, where cultural and religious syncretism creates a series of hybrid characters where the sacred and the profane merge and mix: characters such as the Mexican "Jesús Malverde" who was a bandit from the beginning of the last century, "Guaicaipuro Cacique", "El Negro Felipe" and "María Lionza", three Venezuelan deities, "Juan Soldado", a saint from Tijuana, "Santa Gilda", sanctified singer from Argentina, "Gauchito Gil ”, an Argentine gaucho; the famous “Ekeko” of the Andean area, “Pablito Escobar” to whom one prays in Medellín, “Ismaelito” a Venezuelan thug, "Maximón" a saint from Guatemala and "Sarita Colonia" a Peruvian saint.

The interest of this project lies precisely in seeing how this syncretism can produce characters where the surreal can make sacred catholic figures coexist with thugs, policemen, singers, indigenous people, liberators, etc., in a mixture closer to the marvelous real than to the properly religious.

In this way, a series of sculptural pieces were made in photosculpture (3D photographic print on multi-colored resin), alluding to the representation of these types of characters in Santeria stores, a series of still photographs alluding to the prints they sell with their images. and a booklet of prayers to these saints.

The images are personifications of these saints, made by the author of this project.

This project was presented at the Santa Clara Museum in Bogotá between June 16 and July 24, 2022.

This project was exhibited at the El Nogal Gallery between June 12 and July 4, 2019, together with the artist Santiago Forero and under the curatorship of Carlos García.