Kuxa Suun
Artist: Celeste Byers & Aaron Glasson
Area: Holistika, Tulum
Kuxa Suun is one of Holistika's most emblematic pieces: a monumental face emerging from the earth.
Its origin began with an image from a book shared by Tulum Art Club with the artists Celeste Byers and Aaron Glasson. On one of the first pages, a head appeared rising from the ground. That image became the seed for the piece.
The work connects with the idea of memory buried beneath the earth: knowledge, language and wisdom protected through time, carried by the body, the land and the people who remained.
But the piece is not only symbolic. It is physical. You can enter it. Inside, the head becomes an acoustic chamber. The opening in the crown lets in air and light, and the voice begins to move differently.
This piece was created through collaboration. Celeste Byers and Aaron Glasson painted the vision, but the structure was built by the Holistika team, with Maya builders and people from nearby communities. For Tulum Art Club, they are essential artists of the piece: they gave the work its body before it received its image.
What to notice: the head emerging from the earth; the opening in the crown, where air, light and sound enter; the shift between seeing it from outside and entering it from within; the way sound changes once you are inside; the structure itself, built before the image was painted.
