Cecilia Vicuña

The Great Women Artists

Katy Hessel

Arts

4.8 • 877 Ratings

🗓️ 12 November 2024

⏱️ 43 minutes

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Summary

I am so excited to say that my guest on the GWA Podcast is one of the most trailblazing artists and poets in the world right now, Cecilia Vicuna. Born in 1948 in Chile, and based between Santiago and New York, Vicuna is hailed for her works that are as ephemeral as they are permanent, colossal as they are minute, fragile as they are strong, that bring together sound, weaving, language, and community. Educated in Santiago in the 1960s, life took Vicuna to London to study at the Slade School of Art on a scholarship in the 1970s, but because of the Pinochet regime that began in 1973, she was forced to live in exile. Soon she went to Bogota, Colombia, before moving to New York City, where she has remained ever since, in the same loft and tending to the same community garden. Since Vicuna was a teen, she has focussed on a political orientation for her art, as she has said, because she “understood that the life of this planet was endangered”. Through artforms she calls “arte precario” – precarious art – because it disappears and is vulnerable, Vicuna has held up a poignant mirror to our world through her installations that meld twigs, bamboo, stones, and shredded textiles. While they show us its beauty, they also convey its vulnerability: warning us about what will happen if we don’t wake up in time to protect our ecosystems… At the heart of her art is language – specifically the quipu, which means knots in Quecha, a system of encoding information from the Andes – that conveys as much information as the alphabet – which was used for 5000 years, before being wiped out during colonisation… As well as the importance of togetherness. Because, in a world as destructive as ours we need more than ever to unite, to rebuild the planet for our future descendents, as she says, “not only for the survival of our species, but because it is joyful, fun, beautiful and delightful.” This November, I am excited to say that a new exhibition of Vicuna’s work will open at Lehmann Maupin Gallery in NYC, featuring paintings that she has re-rendered from the 1970s, while on a trip to Bogota and Rio. Dazzling in hues of pinks and yellows, they explore the Yoruba Mythology that represents human or divine characteristics and concepts of nature, and I can’t wait to find out more. https://www.lehmannmaupin.com/exhibitions –– THIS EPISODE IS GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY THE LEVETT COLLECTION: https://www.famm.com/en/ https://www.instagram.com/famm_mougins // https://www.merrellpublishers.com/9781858947037 Follow us: Katy Hessel: @thegreatwomenartists / @katy.hessel Sound editing by Lauren Armstrong Carter Music by Ben Wetherfield

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everyone and welcome back to the Great Women Artists podcast.
0:05.0	Just before we get to today's episode, I am so excited to say that this series is again supported by the Levitt Collection,
0:12.0	a vast and varied art collection of which a major and ever-increasing portion is dedicated to works by women artists.
0:19.0	Today, there are over 600 works by women artists in the
0:23.1	collection. After publishing the must-have book, Abstract Expressionists, the women in 2023,
0:29.2	Christian Levitt went on to open on the 21st of June this year, FAMM, the first private museum in Europe,
0:36.3	entirely dedicated to women artists.
0:39.3	Located in Mujan, Nican in the south of France, this newly transformed space
0:44.4	features a stunning collection of over 100 masterpieces by many of the leading female artists
0:50.4	from impressionism to contemporary.
0:52.5	The impressive exhibition of paintings, sculptures,
0:56.3	photographs and more from the Levec Collection highlights the creative brilliance of women who have
1:01.3	played pivotal roles in shaping some of the major artistic movements of the modern period.
1:06.6	It's only 30 minutes from Nice Airport, FAMM, which stands for female artists of the Mujan Museum, is open every day and for further information and bookings, please visit www.fam.com.
1:20.4	I hope you enjoy this episode.
1:26.4	Hello everyone and welcome to the Great Women Artist podcast with me, Katie Hessel.
1:32.5	Some of you might know me from The Great Women Artists, an Instagram account I set up in October 2015,
1:37.7	which celebrates female artists on a daily basis, ranging from young graduates to old masters.
1:46.2	Well, in a similar fashion to the Instagram, this podcast is all about celebrating female artists from a variety of backgrounds and
1:51.9	histories. And I am so excited to be interviewing artists on their career or artists, writers,
1:57.8	curators or general art lovers on the women artist who means most of them.
2:02.4	What I want this podcast to do is celebrate female artists in all different capacities so you,
	...

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