Lleébu. The Colombian Amazon: Indigenous Sounds and Languages at Risk
exposição-lleebu-mamm
Lleébu, which in the Bora language means «to listen,» is an immersive sound installation that invites us to connect with indigenous languages at risk of disappearing in the Colombian Amazonia. The work employs ritual chants, stories, and soundscapes to propose active listening as a form of memory, care, and resistance to oblivion and cultural loss.
Curator: Jorge Barco
Artist: León David Cobo
The installation poses a fundamental question: what is lost when a language becomes extinct? The answer is multifaceted, encompassing not only language but also ways of inhabiting the world, territorial knowledge, connections with nature, and collective memories. Lleébu offers an intimate space where sound becomes a living archive and a bridge between generations.
The recordings have been made with the following communities: Kamëntša and Inga (Putumayo), Korebajᵾ (Caquetá), Bora, Karijona, Yucuna, Cocama, Nonuya, Muinane, and Yagua (Amazonas), Jiw, Nukak and Sikuani (Guaviare), as well as Kawiyarí, Pinoamahsa, Kakua and Sikuani (Vaupés). In these cultures, human language is intricately intertwined with the sounds of the environment, offering a unique learning experience shaped by the sounds of nature.
The exhibition space fosters deep listening through a restrained atmosphere, multiple audio sources, and spectrograms that graphically represent sound frequencies. A screen in the gallery and a studio brochure at the entrance complement the experience with translations, an essay, and cultural notes, providing a broader understanding.
Lleébu integrates recordings from two key projects of the artist: De agua, viento y verdor, an audio library in native languages for indigenous children, and Puerto Asís sonoro, made with the Inga community. The collection is further enriched by unpublished recordings made in Leticia, Amazonas, in 2025, in collaboration with spiritual leaders such as Tránsito Rodríguez and Elvano Miraña.
Beyond mere aesthetics, Lleébu advocates for ethical and political listening in the face of environmental destruction and cultural homogenization. It proposes sound as a form of resistance, a call to sharpen the senses and acknowledge what stories these peoples and territories still have to share.
Acknowledgements
Elvano Miraña Bora (Igunè, Clan Gavilán), Tránsito Rodríguez Anato (killè Decago, Clan Piña), abuelo Arturo Rodríguez Muinane (Noktt, Clan Piña), Dulfay Rodríguez Rodríguez (Sicatje, comunidad Nonuya), habitantes de la vereda Xingú, Brasil.
En los proyectos De agua, viento y verdor: ICBF, Fundación PLAN y Fundalectura. En Puerto Asís sonoro: Fundación Batuta, Fondo Acción.
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