Manuel Chavajay: Q’Ab’At por el Lago de Atitlán

On Friday, January 26, 2024, the Embarcadero Principal de San Pedro La Laguna to Panajachel will be the site of the inauguration of Manuel Chavajay's latest work: Q'Ab'At por el Lago de Atitlán.

This community project, promoted by the Asociación de Desarrollo Integral de Lancheros Ambientalistas Tz'utujil (ASOLAN), invited Chavajay to create the first floating sculpture on Lake Atitlán. Like most of Chavajay's work, Q'Ab'At—which comes from the Tz'utujil Q'a, arm or extension of the arm, and Bat, the shape of the oar as it connects with the water—seeks to visualize Tz'utujil heritage in a modern globalized world. The sculpture's oars thus act as an extension of the person, unifying landscape and individual in a single displacement of water.