Cecilia Vicuña’s ‘Mind Forest Quipu’ wins Finest Artwork Set up within the 2023 Wallpaper* Design Awards

2022 was the 12 months of Cecilia Vicuña. In April, the Chilean artist was honoured with the 59th Venice Biennale’s Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement and she or he was the topic of a significant present at New York’s Guggenheim. In October, this collection of triumphs culminated in Mind Forest Quipu, the Chilean artist’s epic Hyundai Fee for Tate Fashionable. 

Mind Forest Quipu, which has simply been named Finest Artwork Set up within the Wallpaper* Design Awards 2023, is an imposing, two-sculpture set up in Tate Fashionable’s Turbine Corridor that blends fibre artwork and historical South American communication methods to discover ecology, group and social justice.

In an interview final 12 months, Vicuña defined how the ‘very visceral, unbelievable response’ to her monumental set up, Quipu Womb (2017), which debuted at Documenta 14 and was lately acquired by Tate, was a part of the explanation she was chosen for the coveted Turbine Corridor fee. 

As Frances Morris, director of Tate Fashionable defined final 12 months, ‘Vicuña has been an inspirational determine for half a century, championing issues of ecology, group and social justice which develop ever extra pressing right now. Her radical textile sculptures mix urgent political messages with beautiful visible type, creating a very unforgettable expertise for the viewer – one which resonates with and connects audiences all around the globe. Recognition of Vicuña’s highly effective work is lengthy overdue and I am thrilled that she’ll be bringing fibre artwork to the guts of Tate Fashionable for the primary time.’

Given Vicuña’s historic entanglement with London, the place she lived in political exile within the Seventies, her Tate fee affords a way of coming full circle. ‘I’ve a love for London, the place every little thing was so troublesome and exquisite on the similar time. The Turbine Corridor, particularly, looks like a park, like a public area, and folks use it that method. I’m fascinated by that as a result of that’s the origin of my artwork,’ she advised us. ‘No matter I do within the Turbine Corridor will proceed that spirit of full fluidity of the general public area. Though it’s contained in the museum, individuals take it in a different way, maybe as a result of it’s an industrial area, it belongs to everyone. Experiencing – not telling, however sensing, feeling – is probably the most highly effective method of transmission.’

Cecilia Vicuña, Mind Forest Quipu, Hyundai Fee, till 16 April 2023, Tate Fashionable, London, tate.or (opens in new tab)g.uk