Artists

Cecilia Vicuña

Press release

Created through a public call for contributions, Foraging Quipu is a large-scale participatory installation by Cecilia Vicuña, bringing together plant matter, found objects and materials gathered by local communities. First realised at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) in Dublin in 2025, the installation will be recreated at Whitechapel Gallery through a new public invitation to collect and contribute materials. Visitors are invited to gather dry plant matter and lightweight debris from their surroundings, creating a collective archive of ecological traces, chance encounters and personal acts of attention. The resulting installation will weave together these contributions into a suspended quipu, a form inspired by the ancient Andean system of knotted cords used for recording and communication. Throughout her practice, Vicuña has explored the relationships between people, place, memory and the natural world. Foraging Quipu extends this approach by transforming everyday acts of collecting into a shared artistic gesture, bringing together materials shaped by different environments and histories. Branches, seeds, roots, fungi, textiles, fragments of wood, plastics and other found objects coexist within the work, creating a poetic assembly that reflects both ecological interdependence and human responsibility towards the environments we inhabit. Foraging Quipu is presented alongside Cecilia Vicuña: Living Threads, the artist’s first major UK survey exhibition. The open call for Foraging Quipu is now live. Visitors are invited to contribute dried plant matter and found materials for inclusion in the installation, with collections accepted at Whitechapel Gallery 2 – 14 September 2026. See below for information on how to participate and guidance on responsible collecting.