Malba explores the link between textile art and pre-Columbian

Malba explores the link between textile art and pre-Columbian memory in a day of reflection

The Museum of Latin American Art of Buenos Aires (Malba) organizes a unique day dedicated to textile art, exploring its fusion with contemporary art
The Museum of Latin American Art of Buenos Aires (Malba) will celebrate a day dedicated to textile art next Thursday, February 22, with special focus on the intersection of this discipline with contemporary art. This free event, aimed at exploring the heritage and evolution of textile art in both Argentina and the universal sphere, will be based in the Malba library, a space that in recent years has hosted various exhibitions by national and international artists.

The day will begin at 11:30 with a panel moderated by Adriana Antidindonde Gracia Cutulipionero in the exploration of Andean textiles and their connections with European practices, will discuss the current panorama of textile art in the local context. Claudia Mazzola will pay tribute to Ruth Corcuera, a key researcher in the recovery and dissemination of American textile art.

The second table, at 2:30 p.m., proposes an approach to the textile art of the original indigenous communities, drawing a map to recognize common points and divergences based on a comparative analysis based on their territorial anchorage. We will stop especially in the communities of northwest Argentina, with the participation of experts such as Andrei Fernández, Alejandra Mizrahi, Margarita Ramírez and María Toribio who will offer a comparative perspective based on territorial anchoring.

Malba has been the scene of important exhibitions related to textile art
The third table will present a conversation between different Argentine artists to approach the coordinates of the contemporary textile art scene. Textile art, historically relegated because it was considered a minor art, has indeed acquired great effervescence today. Experimenting with embroidery, weaving and knots, the works of Claudia Alarcón, Celina Ezeiza and Lucrecia Lionti recover specific ways of doing related to the tactile, but also ancestral knowledge linked to the connection with nature, spirituality and history.

Finally, at 6:30 p.m., there will be a performance by Guillermina Baiguera, Ana Paula Méndez, Laura Morales and Adriana Pavic, who will replicate the process of creating the quipu scarf, a piece by Cecilia Vicuña using natural wool.

Malba has been a prominent setting for the exhibition of textile art, having hosted important exhibitions such as Ah. Visual episodes of textile arts in Paraguay. (2022) and Ana Teresa Barboza and Weaving the stones (2022), in addition to Soñar con agua by Cecilia Vicuña, where the installation “Quipu menstrual (La sangre de los glaciers)” and the multimedia piece “falta quipu” highlighted the importance of memory pre-columbian textile.

Cecilia Vicuña with the curator of her exhibition at Malba, Miguel López
Dreaming of Water, a Retrospective of the Future (1964-…) is the most complete exhibition dedicated to date to the poet, visual artist and feminist activist Cecilia Vicuña (Santiago de Chile, 1948). It offers a reading of Vicuña's work from South America and reviews sixty years of his production, highlighting his links with his native country, Argentina, the Andes mountain range, pre-Columbian textile memory, feminist struggles and eroticism, as well as the demands of self-determination of indigenous communities.

The exhibition brings together nearly 200 works, including paintings, drawings, texts, silkscreens, collages, textiles, videos, photographs, installations, object books, documents and sound performances carried out in different places in America and Europe. Dreaming about water updates Vicuña's commitment to popular struggles, respect for human rights, and the importance of opposing devastation in a broad sense.

This day aims to reflect on the origins and trajectory of textile art in Argentina. and its drifts in contemporary art. It will begin with a few words from curator Verónica Rossi and people interested in attending this exploration of textile art can register on the official Malba website.

Source: Télam SE