The Kultrun is the most symbolic instrument in the Mapuche cosmovision. It is mostly used during ritual ceremonies, mainly the ngillatun and machitun lead by the Machis - the Mapuche shamans - to ward off illness or evil and protect the community and their harvest. The Kultrun symbolises the link between the cosmos and the earth, the material and immaterial and represents a dialectical synthesis of the universe, a topographical limit that separates the terrestrial natural world from the six platforms of the supernatural world.
Although still used by many Machis, the Kultrun disappeared from El Cañon Del Blanco (La Araucanía Andina, Chile) when the missionaries settled in that area and chased the Mapuche community living there. Over the years, the valley also suffered from logging and its sacred trees, the Araucaria Araucana - considered as living fossils - are now threatened of extinction.
In a holistic idea of re-foresting and re-wilding the valley, this project investigates the meaning of re-integrating musical instruments and practices in nature by both studying the influence of the Kultrun’s on the crystallisation of the Araucaria Aracana’s resin and exploring the possibilities of preserving its ancestral rhythms in that medium.
On-going project initiated during the Valley of the Possible residency program with the support of FIBER and the French Institute in Chile.