Jeike into the Native Forest, a solo exhibition by the Uruguayan visual artist Carmela Piñón, proposes a pictorial immersion in one of the most significant and, at the same time, least visible ecosystems of the Uruguayan territory: the native forest.

Curated by Catalina Bunge, the exhibition brings together a series of recent works in which the forest ceases to appear as a background landscape and becomes a living, enveloping presence and protagonist. Through light, textures, layers of vegetation and dense atmospheres, Piñón builds a visual experience that invites us to venture into the territory, not only through aesthetic contemplation but also through a sensitive awareness of its fragility and need for preservation.

The word jeike, of Guaraní origin, can be understood as “to enter” or “to go in”. In this sense, the exhibition proposes crossing a threshold: entering the forest as a physical, symbolic and affective space. It is not only about looking at nature from the outside, but about recognizing it as a web of bonds, memory and shared life.

In Carmela Piñón’s works, the vegetation expands, envelops and overflows. The forest appears as an organism, as a refuge, as a territory of biodiversity and as an image of a possible relationship between culture and nature. From a poetic and contemporary perspective, the artist highlights the richness of Uruguay’s native forest and opens a reflection on the ways in which we inhabit, represent and care for the landscapes that sustain us.

The exhibition engages with urgent environmental concerns, but does so through a sensitive, intimate and situated pictorial language. Jeike into the Native Forest invites us to pause our gaze, enter a slower temporality and rethink the link between art, territory and preservation.

From MAPI, this exhibition broadens the dialogue between heritage, nature and contemporary artistic production, proposing an experience that links memory, ecosystem and visual sensitivity.