Edgar Calel: Corn Mountain of Life (Ixim Juyu K’aslem)

Guatemala-born artist Edgar Calel works closely with materials, rituals, and techniques from his Maya-Kaqchikel family and community. For Calel, rather than an expression of individuality, art is a way to pass down knowledge and understanding through generations, amplifying long historical traditions and communal bonds. At its heart, his work honors the idea that knowledge is shared, not owned. Calel often uses recycled or readily available supplies, echoing how people build in his community. On the Bluhm Family Terrace, Calel presents a hut made from recycled materials, similar to the practical shelters common in the countryside near his home. In Kaqchikel, the artist’s first language, these huts are called K’ojay, which translates to “we have a house” or “we have a future.” Families often place these huts near fields or gardens to store tools, the season’s harvest, and firewood for the colder months—items to sustain life throughout the course of the year. Inside the structure, Calel has placed a sculpture of a turtle with corn breaking through its shell. In Maya cosmology, the turtle, with its rounded shell, represents the earth and its time cycles, and corn not only symbolizes the element from which humanity was first formed but also is the central sustaining force of Maya life. On the outside, a mountain of ceramic corn implies abundance and security. Moving this everyday rural architecture from Chi Xot, where Calel was born and lives today, to downtown Chicago allows different histories to meet. For some visitors, the hut may recall a backyard shed; for others, it may bring to mind memories of field shelters and shared labor. Calel’s work suggests that a museum can hold more than objects: it can hold relationships to land, to family, and to each other. As the artist notes, “The world is what you know, what you can reach for.” Edgar Calel: Corn Mountain of Life (Ixim Juyu K’aslem) is curated by Giampaolo Bianconi, Dittmer Associate Curator, Modern and Contemporary Art.