Edgar Calel (Chi Xot -San Juan Comalapa-, Guatemala, 1987) studied at the Escuela Nacional de Arte Rafael Rodríguez Padilla, and lives and works in Guatemala.

His practice is grounded in the Maya Kaqchikel cosmovision, where ritual, collective memory, and offerings open spaces of connection between the individual and the collective, the human and the cosmic. His work reinterprets these gestures within contemporary art, making visible forms of knowledge and spirituality that resist erasure and remain alive in the present, in its own terms.

Echoing his iconic installation The Echo of an Ancient Form of Knowledge (2021), currently on display at Tate Modern, Ru Sipanik K’aslem, Gift of Life (2025) inscribes itself within that broader practice. In it, a slice of watermelon placed on a stone appears as an offering, transmitting his dedication to commemorating those who came before, and affirming art as a place where ancestral memory, spirituality and contemporary life remain deeply intertwined.