Angélica  Cuevas

COCA, PALABRA-MUNDO AT THE UN

Curators: Liana, a curatorial research collective formed by Colombian artists and researchers Angélica Cuevas (Medellín, 1988),  Juan Pablo Caicedo Torres (Bogotá, 1991) and Giselly Mejía (Támesis, 1990).

Artists: Tatiana Arocha, Pajarita Caucana (Daniela Rubio, Maria Alejandra Torres and Mónica Suárez), Aimema Uai, Sandra Díaz, Andrés Domínguez, Estefanía García Pineda, Miguel Ángel Rojas, Edinson Quiñones, Anyi Ballesteros (Agroarte), NOMASMETAFORAS (Julián Dupont and Clara Melniczuk) with  Consejo de Mayores del Territorio Ancestral Kweth Kina & Consejo de Mayores UAIIN-CRIC, Ximena Garrido-Lecca, and Ricardo Cortés. 

My role: Curator, researcher, educator, strategic communicator, and producer. 

Language:  Spanish and English.

Year: November, 2024

In the summer of 2024, we decided to work with the Government of Colombia on the realization of Coca, Palabra-Mundo, an exhibition co-sponsored by the Mission of Bolivia to the United Nations and financed by the Open Society Foundations. The exhibition was held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from November 3 to 8, 2024.

The show invited the international community to reflect on the benefits of the coca plant for Indigenous and peasant communities and to question the historical mistake made by the United Nations in 1961 when it classified coca as a narcotic.

For over 8,000 years, the coca leaf has been an integral part of the life and cultures of Indigenous and peasant communities in the Andean-Amazonian region. However, this sacred plant has been stigmatized and criminalized internationally by being equated with cocaine. The 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs listed the coca leaf as a narcotic, which led to decades of public policies focused on persecuting both the plant and the communities that rely on it. This historical and colonial error has caused immense harm to millions of people, fragmented entire communities, and resulted in irreversible environmental damage.

Coca, Palabra-Mundo sought to challenge and shift the negative perceptions surrounding coca, reclaiming the right of Indigenous and peasant communities to use this sacred plant. More than a symbol of life, health, and spirituality, coca is a profound source of identity, knowledge, and connection for millions in South America. The exhibition invited visitors to reflect on the historical biases that have demonized coca and highlighted the urgent need to correct a deeply entrenched misunderstanding with far-reaching consequences.

The exhibition featured the work of eight artists, many of whom were born or work in regions where coca cultivation is integral to the local culture and economy. Their pieces offer both ancestral and contemporary perspectives, shaped by their personal histories and the experiences of the Indigenous communities with whom they are connected. In these works, coca is portrayed as a being with agency—an element that facilitates communication, political organization, and harmony within communities and territories.

Public Programming:

• Guided Tours at the United Nations:
  A bilingual (Spanish and English) tour led by the curators, offering deeper insights into the themes of the exhibition and the significance of coca.
• Panel Discussion at the UN: Beyond Declassification – Detoxifying Narratives Around the Coca Plant:
  A conversation to challenge the hegemonic negative connotations associated with coca, which have persisted for decades due to misinformation and prejudice, and continue to fuel violence and injustice across South America.
• Dialogue with Colombian Artists – Art, Coca, and Drug Policies:
  A discussion with Colombian artists who use the coca leaf as a medium to transform drug policies and reshape the narratives surrounding drugs.
• Screening – Coca Vision:
  A screening of a photographic series and two video art pieces created by artists featured in the exhibition. The screening was followed by a conversation reflecting on the themes and concepts explored in their works.
• Coca Watercolor Workshop: Tinta Dulce – Poetics of the Future:
  A hands-on watercolor workshop using coca-based inks, led by the Colombian collective Ginger Blonde and curator Giselly Mejía. This workshop invited participants to imagine and illustrate potential futures for the coca plant, exploring its cultural significance and transformative potential.

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After its presentation at the United Nations, the exhibition was hosted at the Open Society Foundations headquarters in New York from November 11, 2024, to January 15, 2025.

ESCR-Net Rebranding

Design Studio:
Le Apéritif

Strategic Communicators: -Angélica Cuevas and Esther de la Rosa

Languages:  Spanish, French, Arabic and English.

Year: 2024

As the Communications Coordinator for the International Network for Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ESCR-Net), I proposed and led the rebranding of an organization that unites 300 social movements, human rights organizations, and advocates from 80 countries, collaborating to build coalitions, inform decisions, and shape structures that ensure human rights.

This was the first time the organization had undertaken such a project, resulting in a new, more powerful way of communicating better aligned with the NGO's mission.

This is a high-impact project, as it not only changed the external perception of how the network communicates, but also transformed the staff's perception of how ESCR-Net can innovate in its approach to communicating human rights. The redesign was commissioned to Le Apéritif Studio (Spain), and together with them and the Communications Director of the Network, we conducted internal workshops to produce the new voice and branding briefing documents that informed the process of conceptualizing this powerful new visual identity.

Le Apéritif decided to create a flexible visual identity and universe that reflects the diversity of viewpoints within ESCR-Net, which is essential for creating more just conditions for societies and communities around the world.

The new identity draws inspiration from various cartographic projections of the world, proposing a dynamic logo that transforms. This graphic system conveys both the collective power to shape the world and the diversity of perspectives within ESCR-Net.

The new identity, brighter and bolder, honors the communities worldwide that resist unjust systems and helps amplify their collective narratives.

COCAWORLDS

Curators: Liana, a curatorial research collective formed by Colombian artists and researchers Angélica Cuevas (Medellín, 1988),  Juan Pablo Caicedo Torres (Bogotá, 1991) and Giselly Mejía (Támesis, 1990).

Artists: Tatiana Arocha, Pajarita Caucana (Daniela Rubio, Maria Alejandra Torres and Mónica Suárez), Aimema Uai, Sandra Díaz, Andrés Domínguez, Estefanía García Pineda, Miguel Ángel Rojas, Edinson Quiñones, Anyi Ballesteros (Agroarte), NOMASMETAFORAS (Julián Dupont and Clara Melniczuk) with  Consejo de Mayores del Territorio Ancestral Kweth Kina & Consejo de Mayores UAIIN-CRIC, Ximena Garrido-Lecca, and Ricardo Cortés.


The project has been carried out with the contribution of researchers from the Colombia Studies Group in New York:  Andrés Ávila, Natalia Mahecha, Melody Feo Sverko, Benjamín Garrido, Juan José Guzmán, María Fernanda Pulido, the designer Sebastián Páez, photographer Alejandro Jaramillo, and the Murui elder Emilio Fiagama Jainuama.


My role: Curator, researcher, educator, strategic communicator, and producer. 

Language:  Spanish and English.

In 2023, we funded Liana Collective and developed COCAWORLDS to reshape narratives and envision possible futures for coca from New York.
The project brings together over 14 transdisciplinary artists, Indigenous authorities, and scholars who reframe coca as a plant of power, medicine, and food in the face of the extractive and punitive violence that has severely wounded its spirit, degraded its territory, and disrupted the lives of Indigenous and peasant communities in Latin America.

COCAWORLDS aims to expand and highlight the complexity of a plant that has been reduced to mere raw material for narcotic production through three central themes: Coca - The Plant, Coca Politics, and Coca Wor(l)ds.

Coca - The Plant examines the plant’s qualities and agency as a living entity, delving into its physical, chemical, and sensory attributes. The use of coca as food and medicine, along with its role as a creative tool, are key concerns of this section. Coca Politics scrutinizes and challenges the tensions arising from the exploitation of the coca leaf for cocaine production and the labeling of the plant as an 'enemy' in the context of the War on Drugs. Finally, Coca Wor(l)ds explores the cultural and spiritual facets associated with the coca plant, emphasizing the Indigenous knowledge systems and worldviews connected to its harvesting and everyday uses.


COCAWORLDS reveals a diverse array of geopolitical tensions, Indigenous healing practices, origin stories, prophetic abilities, cultural artifacts, and mystical connections between coca, language, nature, and divinity, all aimed at transforming narratives and speculating on the future of this sacred plant.

Riografías del Baudó. ¿Cómo se cura un territorio herido?

Curatorial team: Angélica Cuevas and Diana Rodríguez.

Client: Médicos Sin Fronteras (Doctors Without Borders) LATAM

Artist: Fernanda Pineda

Language:  Spanish 




Riografías del Baudó, a photographic project carried out in collaboration with the photographer Fernanda Pineda, documenting the situation of the Afro and Embera communities of Alto Baudó, was open to the public at Artbo and the García Márquez Cultural Centre in Bogotá in September and October 2024.

In July 2024, Médicos Sin Fronteras (Doctors Without Borders) LATAM commissioned me to create a photographic exhibition that would communicate the reality faced by Indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities confined by the armed conflict in the Chocó region of Colombia.

For this project, I curated the images of photographer Fernanda Pineda and, together with museographer Diana Rodríguez, we collaborated on the conceptualization and design of the exhibition. I reviewed an archive of over 500 materials and developed the curatorial guidelines for the show. The exhibition opened in Bogotá in September during Artbo, Colombia's most important art fair, and was later presented at the García Márquez Cultural Center in downtown Bogotá.

The exhibition immersed visitors in the reality of the communities in Alto Baudó, where forced confinement, the presence of armed actors, and state abandonment had created humanitarian gaps and deep vulnerability for the Afro-descendant and Indigenous populations living in these territories. Through a poetic visual language, which included immersive elements that captured the audience's attention, the exhibition documented the landscapes of confinement and the region’s resilience practices. Riografías del Baudó sought to raise awareness among the Colombian and Latin American public about the violence that prevented these communities from living in peace and highlight the traditional healing practices in Alto Baudó. With Riografías del Baudó, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) brought the complex reality of life in remote and violent areas closer to Colombian and Latin American visitors, where MSF provided essential health care programs.

Comedor de Quelites Mixtecos - Mixtec Cooking Zines

Team: Liana Collective - (Angélica Cuevas, Giselly Mejía, Juan Pablo Caicedo) and Voces Collective.
September 2023- May 2024

Approaches: Experimental Pedagogies, Oral History, Ethnography, Transmedia & Digital Storytelling, Social Justice,

My role: Researcher, Product Designer, Educator,  

Language:  Spanish and Mixtec.

As part of our residency, Las Yerbas Apothecary, we collaborated with Voces, a collective of Mixteco migrant women from Guerrero, Mexico, who work in New York City to preserve Mixtec knowledge, language, and ways of life. This ongoing partnership began with a series of oral history interviews where Voces members—Mary José Prudente, Eufemia Neri, Zenaida Simón, Margarita Romualdo, and Paulina Mendoza—shared their experiences as Indigenous migrant women. Through these interviews, they recounted their memories of cooking, healing with plants, and navigating their histories of migration and resistance within patriarchal systems.

The project documented a series of traditional recipes that highlight the Mixtec women’s unique ways of communicating with plants. These plants are integral to their practices—used to season food, create home remedies, and harmonize both daily living spaces and spiritual ceremonies.

The collaboration culminated in the creation of five recipe zines—one dedicated to each member of Voces—and a public dining room activation at Canal Projects in October 2023. The dining table became a vibrant space for conversation about the journey of plants that travel with immigrants and the deep ancestral ties Voces maintains to native herbs and traditional wisdom. These discussions illuminated how plants are not only essential for cooking but also serve as tools for healing and maintaining cultural identity across borders.

The Result

The zine series integrates the following sections:

• Early Life
• Relationships with Family and the Territory
• Growing Up as a Woman in Rural Mexico
• History of Migration from Guerrero to the United States
• Traditions and Culture
• Motherhood
• Traditional Recipe
• Recipe Plant Bios
• Voces Statement

Oral History

For this project, I chose oral history methodology as the foundation for our work with Voces, as its principles of consent, trust, and “do no har

m” aligned perfectly with our approach. I developed discussion guides to shape our dialogues and created a detailed consent form that outlined the nature of our interactions, how the data would be handl

We conducted two-hour conversations with each of the five members of the Voces collective. From the transcriptions and thematic analysis of these conversations, we developed the structure of the zines.

Since plants are at the heart of this project, we hosted two “comedores” where food was made and shared with plenty of generosity. The first one was for the closing event of the Las Yerbas Apothecary installation, where we invited the public to try the five recipes from the zine. The second was to wrap up the project in the summer of 2024. We all brought food, shared a meal, and took the time to thank each other for the collaboration.