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“Cecilia Vicuña’s Exploration of Poetry Through Space”

“Cecilia Vicuña’s Exploration of Poetry Through Space”


**Cecilia Vicuña: Reviving Lost Memories and Imagining New Futures Through Art**

Cecilia Vicuña, the Chilean artist, poet, and activist, has long been revered for her ability to transform forgotten and overlooked fragments of history, memory, and material into profound works of art. Her latest exhibition at Lehmann Maupin in New York, *La Migranta Blue Nipple*, represents an intimate and expansive exploration of themes central to her practice — memory, ecological precarity, resistance, and hope.

In this exhibition, Vicuña breathes new life into her artistic past while simultaneously creating a bridge between ancestral traditions and contemporary crises. The works reflect her efforts to reimagine what has been lost — whether through time, displacement, or ecological damage — and to deconstruct the rigid binaries of culture and nature, memory and imagination, human and material.

### **Reanimating Lost Works: Memory as Creation**
One of the central highlights of the exhibition is Vicuña’s recreation of drawings she originally made in 1978 during her self-imposed exile in Bogotá, Colombia. These drawings, inspired by her encounters with Indigenous and Afro-Brazilian communities during a two-month journey from the Amazon to Rio de Janeiro, were tragically lost or destroyed. Now, decades later, Vicuña uses her memory — along with limited photographs of the originals — as the basis for a new series of oil paintings.

These paintings transform her recollections into vibrant portraits of Yoruba deities known as Orixás, which guide and protect in Afro-Brazilian traditions. For instance, *Santa Bárbara* (2024) reimagines the subject as a colorful landscape filled with the steep slopes and vibrant neighborhoods of northeastern Brazil. Meanwhile, *La música latinoamericana* (2024) pays homage to Latin music by anthropomorphizing instruments, their curves blending seamlessly into human forms.

By reanimating these works, Vicuña performs an act of care — preserving a fragment of her artistic history that could have been lost forever. Yet, in recreating them, she does not remain tethered to the past; rather, she imbues her subjects with renewed vision and meaning, creating a tapestry of interwoven memories and possibilities.

### **A Monument to Collective Memory: The U.S. Debut of *NAUfraga***
The exhibition also marks the first United States presentation of *NAUfraga* (2022), a monumental *quipu* initially displayed at the 59th Venice Biennale. The *quipu* is a traditional Andean system of knotted threads once used for record-keeping, which Vicuña has reinterpreted as an immersive “poem in space.” Her *quipu* incorporates natural elements like shells, dried plants, and rocks alongside human-made debris such as netting and plastics collected from the Venetian lagoon. Suspended from the gallery’s ceiling, the work invites visitors to physically walk through the installation, mimicking the sensation of traversing a web of entangled histories.

In *NAUfraga*, Vicuña juxtaposes the natural and synthetic, referencing humanity’s fragile relationship with the environment. The title, which plays with the Spanish word for shipwreck (*naufragio*), suggests both destruction and survival — the precarious balance of ecosystems and cultures in the face of environmental degradation and human neglect.

### **Sculptural Prayers: Building Peace Amid Precarity**
Another poignant aspect of the exhibition is Vicuña’s latest installment of her *precarios* series (1966–present), titled *A Prayer for the Rebirth of Peace in the All Lands* (2024). These delicate assemblages — crafted from natural and inorganic debris — embody the fragility of ecological and social harmony. Arranged across a large wall, the sculptures are framed by a raw chalk inscription offering a prayer: “We are at war with ourselves, with each other, and with the land.”

The *precarios* display a playful yet solemn quality, blending waste materials, such as metal coils and netting, with organic elements, like withered branches and shells. They offer a subtle commentary on the potential for beauty and meaning in what is often discarded or overlooked. Visitors are also invited to write messages of peace on a piece of bark placed on the gallery floor, allowing each attendee to contribute to a collective vision of reconciliation.

This interactive element underscores Vicuña’s broader message: that peace — like the delicate assemblages she creates — requires care, balance, and the cooperative resolve to hold together what might otherwise disintegrate.

### **Art as Resistance and Renewal**
Throughout her career, Vicuña has championed art as a tool for resistance and renewal, addressing themes like colonial violence, ecological collapse, and cultural memory. In *La Migranta Blue Nipple*, she reflects on the interconnectedness of these issues while offering a hopeful vision for the future.