Co-creating ecological art with the amazon's huni kuin tribe (interview with ecological artist naziha mestaoui)
Naziha Mestaoui (@nazihamestaoui) is an ecological artist and architect whose unique approach merges space, imagery, and technological innovations to create innovative, immersive, and sensory experiences.
Her artwork has been displayed in exhibitions around the world, including New York's MOMA, Shanghai's MOCA, Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, among others. And during the United Nations Climate Conference COP21, Naziha launched 1 Heart 1 Tree, a notable engaging digital piece of citizen artwork that allowed individuals the opportunity to plant a virtual tree—for every virtual tree planted, a real tree was then planted in reforestation programs across five continents.
In this podcast episode, Naziha sheds light on what quantum physics has to do with the Amazon Rainforest's Indigenous Peoples that Naziha has gotten to know; what the Huni Kuin tribe wanted the world to know about who they are through the ecological art that they co-created with our guest, Naziha, and more.
To start, get a glimpse below into the conversation between Naziha and Green Dreamer Podcast's host, Kamea Chayne.
“We need to find a way to go back to a more collective approach of dealing with our reality, with land, and with nature.”
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This is a conversation on Green Dreamer with Kamea Chayne, a podcast and multimedia journal illuminating our paths towards ecological balance, intersectional sustainability, and true abundance and wellness for all. This preview has been edited for clarity. Subscribe to Green Dreamer Podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, or any podcast app to stay informed and updated on our latest episodes.
On the first inspirations that led Naziha to her work in the Amazon:
“I found a book where the connection was made between quantum physics and the Akashic Field. [The Akashic Field] is a Hindu concept that is about 5,000 years old which describes the void and emptiness as a library where all information is stored beyond time and space.
Quantum physics actually describes voids in a very similar way. So with that connection, I started to realize that the most ancestral societies on earth lived in a reality that was probably more compatible with how quantum physics defines reality.
And that's what brought me to the Amazon.”
On the process behind Naziha and the Huni Kuin tribe's project, ‘Sounds of Light’:
"The concept of ‘Sounds of Light’ directly comes from the connection between science and the most ancestral societies and cultures.
It's a bridge of our scientific and rational worlds and those societies that have, in my opinion, invisible technologies. They are very powerful and very precise, but of course you don't have any access to those technologies because they are in other layers of reality.
So, you can't experience them except in certain contexts.”
On how we can connect more deeply and be in harmony with nature:
“We need to find a way to go back to a more collective approach of dealing with our reality, with land, and with nature.
That's what the tribes have—they live in very strong communities. Almost all members of the tribe are part of the same family, and they consider all animals and plants as being their extended family. So they're really working as a community, and I think that's one thing we need to go back to.”
Final words of wisdom:
“We have to inspire our future. The reason why I say that is because, often, when you speak about technologies, all the vision and the storytelling about our future focuses on robotics and AI. And that's not really a future I want to live in.
So, let's take it and make other propositions. We all have the possibility to inspire that future—so let's do it.”
