From Asia and Europe to Wallmapu: Colectivo Epew Completes Successful International Tour

Original article: De Asia y Europa a Wallmapu y Santiago OFF: Colectivo Epew cierra exitosa gira internacional

As it prepares for its return with Fillke Pewma in the 2026 edition of the Santiago OFF Festival, Colectivo Epew has returned to Wallmapu to conclude its artistic and intercultural education project, «Thinking with Others.»

Supported by Fundación SURA and Fundación Bolívar Davivienda, the initiative includes the Tayül School –developed in partnership with Fundación Elisa Avendaño Curaqueo– and a tour of the play «Epew: The Fox and the Condor / Ngürü engu Mañke» through five rural schools in La Araucanía, reaffirming its commitment to preserving Mapuche knowledge. «We return to the land that gave us the epew,» they state.

Celebrating its 10-year trajectory and representation at the International Theatre Institute (ITI), the group carried out in 2025 a series of artistic, educational, and international activities that solidify its local work in Chile and its visibility on academic, museum, and performance stages abroad.

„We have met theater practitioners from different parts of the world, which has been fascinating both artistically and socially, highlighting the global importance of Mapuche culture and theater as instruments of peace and understanding,” commented Roberto Cayuqueo, director of Fundación Colectivo Epew, president of ITI Chile, and member of its international executive council.

„We’ve been in Icalma sharing oral stories that we previously presented to the Afro-Indigenous community in Brazil, for example. The most beautiful thing is to see how Mapuche culture stays alive dialoguing with the world, showing that our ancient epew continue to resonate in other places as well as in our territories,” added Cayuqueo.

Designed as a meeting place for art, oral traditions, pedagogy, and Mapuche knowledge, during the first semester Colectivo EPEW deepened its work in Wallmapu through the Tayül School, which focuses on strengthening situated and collective educational processes.

Created as part of the «Thinking with Others» project, the school collaborated with Fundación Elisa Avendaño Curaqueo. The involvement of the first National Music Prize winner from indigenous peoples highlighted the connection between sound creation, memory, language, and intergenerational transmission, adding a crucial dimension to the educational process.

Following its official closing in November 2025, the tour of the play «Epew: The Fox and the Condor / Ngürü engu Mañke» took place across five rural educational institutions in La Araucanía, bringing performing arts to communities with limited access to cultural programming.

Inspired by the traditional epew format, the play offers an intimate and participatory scenic experience supplemented by artistic mediation and dialogue sessions with students and teachers.

International Projection

At the end of October, Roberto Cayuqueo Martínez embarked on an academic and artistic tour in China. During his visit, he taught master classes on site-specific theater, scenic cartography, and Mapuche Theater at the Shanghai Theatre Academy, the leading performing arts training center in the Asian country, strengthening cultural exchange and dialogue between contemporary theatrical practices and ancestral knowledge.

This tour also included linguist and academic Elisa Loncón Antileo, an honorary member of ITI Chile, whose presence emphasized the intersection of language, culture, performing arts, and political-cultural thinking in international academic spaces, establishing a plural and situated representation of Chile’s artistic endeavors in Asia.

Subsequently, in November, Colectivo EPEW began its European tour with the Fillke Pewma project.

This modular and interactive dream-collecting installation was exhibited at the Wereldmuseum Leiden in the Netherlands. The proposal invited the audience to share and receive pewma (dreams), weaving together memory, imagination, and the future through textile art, biomaterials, and digital technologies.

The exhibit included cyanotypes created with artists and social advocates from migrant communities in Europe, reshaping colonial archives from a collective and decolonial perspective.

Meanwhile, the site-specific work Fillke Pewma was presented in Barcelona as part of the BCN Off Festival. Featuring Luis Tato Dubó and Rallen Montenegro, the performance was adapted for the Llobregat River, creating a sensitive dialogue between territory, landscape, scenic fiction, and memory.

After such an intense agenda, the group will return between January 23 and 26, when the performance will be part of the program for the upcoming edition of the Santiago OFF Festival, celebrating its 15th anniversary. Reinforcing the connection between contemporary creation, local territories, and audiences, the Mapuche dystopia blends fiction and reality, digital with analog, to create an immersive experience around the Mapocho River.

In this way, Colectivo Epew reaffirms an artistic practice that organically navigates between rural schools, communities, academies, museums, and international festivals while promoting the right to culture, intercultural education, and collective thought, from Wallmapu to the world and back to the territories.

FILLKE PEWMA DETAILS

January 23 to 26, 2026
Thursday to Sunday, 20:30 hours
Theatre del Puente
Mapocho River between Purísima and Pío Nono bridges, Santiago
Tickets on Ticketplus

The Citizen