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The Devil's Breath

Castelblanco, Felipe

Format: Video recording

The film touches on the ethnomedicinal practices of the Kamnësnta people living in the Colombian-Amazon region, who still maintain a close relation to a potent plant from the Burgmansia family. Locally known as Borrachero Andaki, the toxicity of this plant has rendered it as a deadly and divine being at once. Ingesting -or even smelling it- can cause severe hallucinations and temporary loss of memory. Nevertheless, this plant is revered among the shamans for enabling those who take it to anticipate the future, not through visions but through feeling.

2025

Additional funding form: Haus für Medienkunst Oldenburg and Stiftung Niedersachsen.

Cast: Ayënan Quinchoa Juajibioy, Taita Miguel Chicunque and Heraldo Vallejo. Camera and editing: Felipe Castelblanco

Voice: Syntetic Voice inspired and modulated based on the tone of traditional Siona storytellers, such as Taita Aristides Piaguaje.

Institutional crdits:

A film Felipe Castelblanco, realized in the framework of the research project Plants_ Intelligence. Learning like a Plant (2022 - 2025). A research project by Yvonne Volkart, Felipe Castelblanco, Julia Mensch and Rasa Smite. Funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and hosted by the Institute Art Gender Nature, Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW. Co-commissioned by the Haus für Medienkunst Oldenburg and supported by Stiftung Niedersachsen.

Equipment specifications: 85 inch monitor placed on vertical position

Tags

Basel Brugmansia arborea (Borrachero Andaki) Colombia Contemporary moving image art Ethnobotanical knowledge Expanded cinema Human–nonhuman relations Human–plant alliances Indigenous cosmologies Indigenous knowledge systems Kamnënstá people Plant agency Putumayo Speculative narrative Switzerland Territorial imagination (Amazon–Alps) Time-based media Video installation (three-channel) werke felipe plant_intelligence

Queries

Werke - Plant_Intelligence - Felipe Werke - Plant_Intelligence Werke catalog - Artistic catalog - Education catalog - HGK catalog - mediathek catalog - Network

Full spec

DateAdded: 2026-02-02T08:51:12Z
DateModified: 2026-02-02T08:51:12Z
Key: RJ6V9PDT
Language: Spanish, EN and GE subtitles, GE transcription
Rights: This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
RunningTime: 00:06:30
SeriesTitle: Tunda: A Quantic Plant and the Devil’s Breath
Handle: 20.500.11806/med/4c0z-mtkw-s9