Cecilia Vicuña

PROVENANCE: Courtesy of the Artist

Silkscreen print of Cecilia’s invitation to her 1977 presentation Homage to Vietnam at
the nonprofit Fundación Gilberto Alzate Avendaño in Bogotá, an exhibition celebrating
the end of the Vietnam War. Her paintings were an homage to the Vietnamese
struggles that expressed anger at the cruelties inflicted by American military intervention
in its fight against communism – which included US support for the military coup Chile in
1973.

Artist-poet Cecilia Vicuña creates songs, performances, installations, paintings, films, written works, books, lectures, and sculptures. Vicuña’s work is always attentive to ethics, the earth, and history. Her object making includes “precarios” – precarious works – composed of fragile materials that disappear, regenerating the life force, and large-scale installations of “quipus,”
dyed wool and fibers inspired by the complex Andean record keeping system of sets of knotted cords. Her improvisatory, participatory performances emphasize the collective nature of action and creativity to bring forth justice, balance and transformation of the world. Cecilia Vicuña’s solo exhibit “About to Happen” opened at MoCA North Miami in December,
2019. Her retrospective “Seehearing the Enlightened Failure” recently traveled from the Witte de With in Rotterdam to MUAC in Mexico City, where it opened in February, 2020. Her works are included in the collections of Tate London, MoMA New York, Guggenheim Museum, Museo de Arte Contemporaìneo de Chile, Museo de Arte de Lima and Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de
Santiago de Chile. In 2017, her work was part of the 14th Documenta in Athens, Greece and Kassel, Germany. Vicuña is the author of 25 books.