Cecilia Vicuña's Turbine Hall installation at Tate Modern explores indigenous cosmology and colonial violence

Cecilia Vicuña's Brain Forest Quipu (2022), commissioned by Hyundai for Tate Modern's Turbine Hall in London, features impressive sculptural installations complemented by audiovisual components. Central to the exhibit are two 27-meter-long fibrous sculptures named Dead Forest Quipu, made from organic materials such as textiles, netting, and rope, along with items collected from the River Thames by Latin American communities in London. These pieces draw inspiration from the ancient Andean quipu, which were knotted string recording devices utilized by Indigenous South Americans between 1100 and 1532 AD. Sound design by Colombian composer Ricardo Gallo and a video collage showcasing Survival International's coverage of indigenous land defenders enhance the installation, which explores themes of ecological crisis, cultural resilience, and colonial oppression. However, some elements fall short in effectively conveying the political and economic narratives. The Ethnological Museum of Berlin possesses the largest collection of quipus, totaling 298, amassed through Wilhelm Gretzer's 19th-century endeavors. Theorist Ariella Aïsha Azoulay's 2020 book, Potential History, offers a critical lens on how mainstream histories depict indigenous cultural artifacts as 'dead'. In the last decade, over 1,700 environmental activists have been killed, underscoring the urgent issues of planetary destruction addressed in this work.