Cross Patterns: Paths To Be Able To Return, 2023

Curated by Lorena Moreno Vera

Part of An(Other)South+

Minuseins, Vienna, AT

Artist: Bárbara Palomino Ruiz, January 19 – 27, 2023

Cross Patterns is a multimedia installation by Bárbara Palomino Ruiz inspired by the polysemy of the sophisticated geometric patterns called Kené, created by the Shipibo-Konibo, an indigenous group from the Eastern Peruvian Amazon. In 1980, a German anthropologist proposed that Shipibo shamans could chant these motifs as if the lines of patterns embroidered on cloth or painted on surfaces corresponded to lines of sound. This idea of “sung patterns” corresponding to a musical code was not part of Shipibo-Conibo life before its introduction by anthropologists, who promoted and disseminated it in the academy. Its popularity, however, came to influence the reality of some Shipibo-Conibo groups, who adopted the idea of the “sung patterns” as their own, thus promoting an “invented tradition.”

In a tactile and poetic way, Cross Patterns arises from this inquiry and, therefore, from ethnographic fiction.

Cross Patterns is part of An(other) South+, a 9-day festival that aims to reverse narratives of underrepresentation in contemporary art. An(other) South+ is curated by Oscar Cueto, Lorena Moreno Vera, Ramiro Wong, and Alejandra Zapata.

To see the video, click here