Inframundi

"Inframundi is a catalogue of imaginary artefacts inspired by a personal story: that of a childhood spent in the presence of an ancient pre-Columbian mummy. Drawing on this formative memory, Elisa Valenzuela imagines the objects one might need in the afterlife. Born from several years of research, the project is based on the study of pre-Columbian, Oceanic, and ancient art catalogues. The artist borrows their visual and descriptive conventions and shifts them toward fiction, constructing a parallel archaeology in which imagination replaces scientific method. The book unfolds in chapters that echo the major spheres of existence: beauty, style, utensils, the rites of passage, rituals, childhood. Each section explores the gestures, beliefs, or needs one might wish to carry into another world. Combs, sound amulets, ritual shoes, domestic tools, or articulated toys form an ideal funerary collection—plausible, yet entirely imagined. Inframundi questions what objects retain from ourselves: gestures, beliefs, bonds, fragilities. In this re-invented afterlife, they emerge as figure—companions, markers, or guides—extending what ties us to the world. The project explores the malleability of memory and archaeological narrative, showing how a story can be reshaped differently. Created through a dialogue between artistic gestures and artificial intelligence, these artefacts adopt the codes of ancient relics while opening a fictional territory where new narratives can emerge."