Edgar Calel

Born 1987, Chi Xot (San Juan Comalapa), Guatemala
Lives and works Chi Xot (San Juan Comalapa), Guatemala Maya Kaqchikel 

Pa sutz’ xkix tzolojpe (from the fog they will return) 2025 

cotton, silk and wool embroidery, beeswax, paraffin

Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney and the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain 

Courtesy of the artist and Proyectos Ultravioleta, Guatemala 

In Pa sutz’ xkix tzolojpe (from the fog they will return) Maya Kaqchikel artist Edgar Calel abstracts history and body to create a vision of spirit. Across a 17-meter blanket, poured beeswax drips and dries into almost-human forms which recall Guatemala’s Indigenous Mayan community prior to colonisation. 

Through embroidery, folding and other artistic interventions Calel draws these spirits from the metaphorical fog of the past into the present. For Calel this mark-making functions both as a map, guiding viewers through possible interpretations, and an acknowledgement of the scars left upon the Mayan people over centuries of violent upheaval. 

In Mayan culture, residues left by a fire are readings of time, memory, and spirituality. In Pa sutz’ xkix tzolojpe (from the fog they will return) traces of the artist’s ancestors similarly speak to both the past and the future. Believing that academia and state histories leave little room for community or spirituality, Calel opens a space for audiences to explore and form their own meanings through the mist of time.