Gallery Discussion of Cecilia Vicuña: Disappeared Quipu

Date: 

Saturday, October 20, 2018, 11:00am to 12:00pm

Location: 

Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02115

This joint event between the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Harvard’s David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies celebrates the exhibition Cecilia Vicuña: Disappeared Quipu. On view in the Linde Family Wing for Contemporary Art at the MFA Boston, the exhibition includes a newly commissioned sculpture and video installation by Chilean-born, New York-based artist Cecilia Vicuña, in dialogue with five ancient quipus on loan from the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University, and weavings from the MFA’s world renowned Andean textile collection. Vicuña has devoted much of her decades-long artistic practice to studying and interpreting quipu, an ancient form of record keeping through knot making. Her new work transforms these mysterious objects from an ancient mode of communication into an immersive, room-sized installation, using monumental strands of knotted wool and participatory performances that involve fiber, poetry, and song. During this event, we will explore diverse perspectives on Vicuña’s work and the quipu via a discussion with the artist, Cecilia VicuñaLiz Munsell, Lorraine and Alan Bressler Curator of Contemporary Art; Dennis Carr, Carolyn and Peter Lynch Curator of American Decorative Arts and Sculpture; David Guss, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Anthropology at Tufts University; Tom Cummins, Dumbarton Oaks Professor of the History of Pre-Columbian and Colonial Art in the Department of the History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University; and Gary Urton, Dumbarton Oaks Professor of Pre-Columbian Studies in the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University and collaborator on the project.

**Please note that space is limited. To register for the event, please email Marcela Ramos at: mvramos@fas.harvard.edu.