In Armonía de la Esfera (Harmony of the Sphere), Guadalupe Maravilla considers migration and its aftereffects through the resonance of aesthetic, symbolic form and healing sonic experience. The exhibition pairs his recent installations and works on paper with historical sculpture and narratives collected from current immigration detention centers. With a multifaceted practice grounded in activism and healing, Maravilla connects ancestral knowledge and traditions with contemporary practices and concerns such as immigration, illness, and trauma.

His personal story of migration—born in 1976, he fled war-torn El Salvador alone at eight years old—and subsequent battle with cancer profoundly inform his work, which spans sculpture, painting, drawing, video, and performance. Maravilla’s use of unconventional materials, collected during the constant retracing of his own immigration journey, underscores the deeply personal nature of his artistic practice. From discarded objects to sound instruments, each element is meticulously integrated into the art, symbolizing a journey of reclaiming and repurposing fragments of his own narrative. Through this process, Maravilla not only confronts his own trauma but also invites us to consider the potential for renewal and healing inherent in embracing one’s past.

The artist’s selection of pre-Hispanic objects from the Johnson Museum’s permanent collection and Cornell’s Anthropology Collections creates a dialogical juxtaposition of past and present, highlighting continuities in movement, transit, and exchange across the region now known as the Americas. These striking objects and their materials reveal both ancestral routes of exchange and ever-changing connections to place in North, Central, and South America, with individuals and ideas moving in all directions.

The final section of the exhibition focuses on Maravilla’s ongoing commitment to restorative action in situations of displacement and confinement. It centers on the collective and individual stories of current and former detainees that navigate the complex US immigration system, often defined by emotional strain and prolonged periods of uncertainty. Collaborative performative acts—on video or with the Tripa Chuca wall drawing in this gallery—create new paths and possibilities.

Guadalupe Maravilla has presented solo exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art; the Brooklyn Museum; the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver; Henie Onstad Kunstsenter; Socrates Sculpture Park; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; and elsewhere.

This is the second in a series of exhibitions developed in conjunction with the Migrations Global Grand Challenge, part of Global Cornell, with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Just Futures Initiative. We are grateful to Frederic W. Gleach, curator of the Anthropology Collections, for his trusted partnership. Leonardo Santamaría-Montero, PhD student in the History of Art, provided new research and writing on the pre-Hispanic works on view. Maravilla’s conversations with the students of the Cornell Anti-Detention Alliance and their advisor, Professor Jane Juffer, inspired new directions for the exhibition. Artist and collaborator Ingrid Franco gave form to the Tripa Chuca game, and to much of our thinking.