NINA

The Officine Panafricane art gallery presents NINA, an exhibition and visual journey, curated by Scilla Maris, that weaves together the graphic memory and ancestral geometry of Abya Yala (Latin America) with the pressing urgencies of the present.
In an era marked by conflict and structural violence, the exhibition proposes a conceptual reimagining of fire: no longer merely an element of destruction, but NINA — the spark of resistance, creation, and transformation that fuels social and political responses.
From the backbone of the Andes, the work of Xilotrópico (Chile) and Pacha (Peru) builds a bridge between pre-Hispanic material culture and the contemporary world, tracing the imprint of what continues to resist in stones, threads, textiles, and dreams.

PRESS RELEASE
NINA — ReExistencias desde Abya Yala

The Fire of memory, the light that rekindles hope and opens up the future

Joel Pacha and Xilotrópico | Curated by Scilla*Maris

20–25 October 2026 | Officine Panafricane, Via Giulia 73, Rome
Opening reception: Tuesday, 20 October, 6:30–10:00 pm
Part of Rome Art Week 2026

A face re-emerges from a photographic archive, ancestral geometries take shape in a mosaic of colourful seeds, and stories of ancient pre-Columbian culture return to challenge the present.

With NINA — ReExistencias desde Abya Yala, Joel Pacha and Xilotrópico create a dialogue between memory, identity and resistance, in which art becomes a tool for reactivating histories and imagining new horizons.

Nina, the Quechua word for fire, evokes a vital force capable of illuminating and transforming. Abya Yala, an Indigenous name for the American continent adopted by numerous decolonial perspectives, calls to mind forms of knowledge and identities that continue to resist colonial narratives. ReExistencias expresses the active persistence of communities that transform memory into a possibility for the future.

Joel Pacha presents a screen print inspired by a photograph by César Meza (1912–1993), a renowned portrait photographer from Cusco, drawn from the archives of the Fototeca Andina at the Centro Bartolomé de Las Casas. In this way, photographic memory re-enters circulation in the present. His contribution also includes a Chakana, an Andean symbol composed of colourful seeds and arranged on the gallery floor, as well as short films projected onto the ceiling. In these films, ancient Inca wisdom serves as a source of inspiration, healing and emancipation from the personal, civic and social hardships experienced by contemporary Peruvian communities.

Xilotrópico brings to the exhibition the power of woodcut printing and the political poster, through images connected to experiences of mobilisation and resistance in Chile and Colombia. Graphic art becomes a shared language, capable of restoring visibility to faces and individuals who are often marginalised. While Warhol created exclusive portraits intended for sale to the North American upper classes, Xilotrópico fills the streets with free images of anonymous faces, evoking those of the people who inhabit our neighbourhoods every day.

Guido Balbo di Vinadio’s extraordinary participation in NINA takes shape through a powerful mural dedicated to the Andean condor (Vultur gryphus), a majestic and ancient creature, symbolizing freedom, transcendence, and the connection between earth and sky.

Elisa Massaro, an anthropologist and film archivist with experience in Latin America, recovered the archival images and contributed to the artistic production of the exhibition, reactivating the relationship between visual memory and cultural identity in the present.

Moving between archives, ancestral symbols and moving images, NINA thus presents memory as a living substance, never a relic: a flame that travels through time, fuels resistance and keeps open the possibility of a different future.
Information

    Artists: Joel Pacha and Xilotrópico
    Curator: Scilla*Maris
    Artistic production collaboration: Elisa Massaro, Guido Balbo di Vinadio 
    Venue: Officine Panafricane, Via Giulia 73, Rome
    Dates: 20–25 October 2026
    Opening reception: 20 October, 6:30–10:00 pm

An event within Rome Art Week 2026.