Center for Latin American and Latinx Studies 
After a month-long residency, internationally acclaimed Aymara Bolivian artist and muralist Roberto Mamani Mamani, unveiled his new mural, MALLKUANKA – Vuelo Surnorte De Colores/ The South/North Flight of Colors on Thursday, September 28th at 6PM at 2100 Washington Avenue, the home of the Philadelphia Animal Specialty and Emergency (PASE).
The mural is a colorful, vivid depiction of the Bolivian and Philadelphia landscapes, and weaves together images of the Andean cosmovision (or worldview), Indigenous peoples, and animals from both South and North America. Bolivia and Philadelphia are joined together by the Pachamama, or Mother Earth, in the center, the condor and eagle at top, and other symbols that reflect and celebrate the Andean cosmovision.
Roberto Mamani Mamani, considered by some as the “best and brightest” artist in Bolivia, said in a public talk at the University of Pennsylvania that the mural shows the “encounter of cosmovisions,” and of “worlds, cities, [recognizing] in the end we share a continent and world and we share all of the concerns of the Pachamama or Mother Earth.”
He brings the colors, symbols, and worldview of the Andes, but his mural also captures the same of Philadelphia, in terms of its animals and symbols in the area, explained Mamani Mamani. For example, the eagle and condor are “sacred beings of two culture, and when they encounter there will be more harmony.”
Of Aymara Indigenous descent, Roberto Mamani Mamani is a self-taught artist who has created countless paintings and murals and has participated in over 60 exhibitions worldwide.
Mamani Mamani’s “abstract art is a uniquely modern representation of indigenous heritage,” as “it is his vision of his people through texture, character, emotion and feeling,” according to Harry Stewart (2017) in this news article in Culture Trip.
Mamani Mamani painted and designed the spectacular 12-story public housing buildings, the Wiphala Condominiums, in El Alto, Bolivia, the second largest city in the country.
“Although I have not seen these in person, just looking at photos of the Wiphala housing project convinces me it should be considered the eighth wonder of the world,” said Cathy Bartch, the Associate Director for the Center of Latin American and Latinx Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Bartch and the Center have been instrumental in organizing his visit to the United States and Philadelphia.
This is the first time that the Center for Latin American and Latinx Studies has partnered with Mural Arts Philadelphia. Tulia Falleti, the Director of the Center for Latin American and Latinx Studies, said that she is “delighted to have our first collaboration with MAP, and to do it about Philadelphia and the energy of the Andes.”
“Roberto Mamani Mamani is the first Bolivian artist to gift the city with this extraordinary and beautiful mural,” Professor Falleti said. “It is a reminder of the importance of the Bolivian and Latinx community in Philadelphia and all the contributions they make to our city.”
Jonathan, Katz, Associate Professor of Practice, History of Art and Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, and a Principal Investigator, along with Tulia Falleti who is the Lead Principal Investigator on the Penn-Mellon Just Futures Dispossessions in the Americas grant which in part funded the mural, said, “Roberto Mamani Mamani imports an Andean ideology of humanity and nature in harmonious balance to a busy, industrialized part of Washington Blvd. Fittingly applied to an animal hospital, it radiates calm, joy, and peaceful coexistence to a part of the city that could really use a touch of the natural world."
The partners for this project include Mural Arts Philadelphia, Penn-Mellon Just-Futures Dispossessions in the Americas Initiative, and the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Latin American and Latinx Studies.
This project is funded by Mural Arts Philadelphia and Mellon Foundation Just Futures Initiative grant N-2009-09221, entitled “Dispossessions in the Americas: The Extraction of Bodies, Land, and Heritage from la Conquista to the Present.” The grant is administered by the University of Pennsylvania, coordinated by Principal Investigator Tulia G. Falleti, and with co-principal investigators Margaret Bruchac, Ricardo Castillo-Neyra, Ann Farnsworth-Alvear, Michael Hanchard, Jonathan D. Katz, Richard M. Leventhal, and Michael Z. Levy.
This project was also supporedt by a Sachs Program for Arts Innovation grant.
**Also, check out the article by journalist Massarah Mikati in the Philadelphia Inquirer (October 4, 2023).