The new media artist and the Yawanawá community, indigenous to the Brazilian Amazon, present a historic collaboration for planetary sustainability as part of Impact One’s Possible Futures programme. 

Winds of Yawanawa by Refik Anadol and the Yawanawá

Refik Anadol and the Yawanawá have co-created a first-of-its-kind digital artwork series entitled Winds of Yawanawa. The series comprises a data sculpture and a limited Genesis NFT collection of 1000 unique Data Paintings that harness weather data from the tribe’s village in the Amazon rainforest. Each Data Painting is composed of a unique video with soundtrack, generated from the Winds of Yawanawa artwork video. Central to the creative process of the pieces are the young Yawanawá sisters Nawashahu and Mukashahu, whose artworks form the foundation and visual inspiration of Winds of Yawanawa, combined with traditional Yawanawá chants. The data includes wind speed, gusts, direction and temperature and merges with the paintings, resulting in a mesmerising play of traditional shapes and colours. Real-time weather data from Aldeia Sagrada flows into the central Winds of Yawanawa artwork and dictates its movement, making it a living and dynamically evolving representation of the Yawanawá identity and the community’s connection to their Amazonian territory – a fundamental ecosystem for all of humanity. 

Announced by Refik himself, Winds of Yawanawa is his “most meaningful and purposeful project of the year,” bringing us a step closer to reconciling with symbiotic modes of living on our planet.

The artwork series was created as part of Impact One’s Possible Futures programme, to help plant the seeds for a more integrative approach to sustainability in the future. It offers holistic insights and practical approaches, co-created with indigenous wisdom, to foster built environments that are nature-positive and integrate symbiotic ways of life. The Possible Futures initiative was born out of Genesis, the indigenous outreach programme commissioned by CEO of Therme Art Mikolaj Sekutowicz and curated by Jeanne de Kroon as part of Therme Art’s Wellbeing Culture Forum. As part of this, in September 2022, the invitation from Chief Nixiwaka Yawanawá’s to meet in the Yawanawá Sacred Village of Aldeia Sagrada was accepted. The initiative has since flourished to become a platform to listen and amplify indigenous voices to co-develop a shared perspective on true value impact.

In the Possible Futures collaboration with the Yawanawá, the community is represented by chiefs Nixiwaka, Putanny, and Isku Kua, leaders of the villages of Aldeia Sagrada and Nova Esperança. The sales of the artwork will go directly to Instituto Nixiwaka, the entity representing the Yawanawá communities, to support long-term initiatives for the protection of the Yawanawá territories and cultural heritage. Among other projects, the proceeds generated will be utilised for building sustainable infrastructure in the Aleida Sagrada village and developing an educational programme for Nova Esperança. 

For the launch of Winds of Yawanawa, Possible Futures partnered with Scorpios Mykonos to present the artwork as part of their new art platform Encounters. The official unveiling of the artwork series took place on 13 July 2023, along with the opening of the sale of the NFT data paintings. The programme included traditional prayers and performances led by Yawanawá Chiefs Nixiwaka and Isku Kua together with Nixiwaka’s daughters Ninunihu and Ykashahu, as well as a panel discussion curated by Impact One and moderated by CEO of Therme Art, Mikolaj Sekutowicz. Entitled Winds of Yawanawa: Possible Futures, Web3 and Indigenous-led Pathways for Global Sustainability, the conversation centred on the concept and creative process behind the collaborative artwork and utilisation of Web3 as an additional driver of global stewardship of natural ecosystems.

More information on possiblefutures.one.