Patents on the soles of your shoes...: Interlude

Friday, August 26, 2022

Interlude – Cecilia Vicuña (1)

2022 is a huge year of recognition for Cecilia Vicuña, Chilean artist, poet, filmmaker, performance artist and activist. Vicuña is currently on show in the rotunda of the New York City Guggenheim Museum (May 27- September 5, 2022), and at the 59th International Art Show, at the Venice Biennale (April 23 – Sept. 25, 2022), where she was awarded a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. Vicuña’s art is also commissioned by Hyundai, for an upcoming exhibit at the Tate Modern’s Turbine Room, in London, UK (Oct. 11, 2022 – April 16, 2023).

About her art, Vicuña states: “Every work of mine seems to be made by a different person, but they are also completely coherent.” (Loos, 2022) Perhaps, that this is the reason why the selection of Venice Biennale pieces highlights her work on canvas, while the selection of Guggenheim pieces highlights her work on quipus. A take on the Andean system of inscription, using knotted cords (quipus in Quechua), the untied ends of which, Vicuña interpreted as an invitation to complete. Ancient threads and knots, which tell a story without words. A history that can nonetheless be accessed through knotting, and to a certain extent rewritten, with new knots that tie into the old ones.

Thus, the Guggenheim show exhibits "Quipu del Extermino" (The Extermination Quipo), the bloodied history of indigenous populations, or of other bloodied his/herstories. Vicuña writes on the walls of the Guggenheim "can we/ack/now/ledge/ex/termi/nation?”, "the quipu is the speaker of blood".

Artist, poet, and activist in exile, Vicuña fled Pinochet’s brutal takeover, and dictatorship, for more than two decades, in Chile (Sept. 11, 1973 – March 11, 1990). Fleeing first to London, she then lived several years in the Andes, (in Bogotá, Columbia), settling finally in New York City, since 1980.

The painting below, titled La Comegente (The People Eater), from the 59th International Art Show, at the Venice Biennale, is the artist’s attempt to purify the earth.

The following piece was also curated for the 59th International Art Show, at the Venice Biennale. This piece, titled Virgen Puta addresses the well-known archetypical duality virgin-whore. According to the artist, the duality is depicted on a curvature of space, as patron saint, protecting misguided women, such as herself.