A brief history of threads (from 1960 to the present day)

The Maison de l’Amérique latine presents the exhibition Une brève histoire de fils, to be held in Paris from October 10, 2024 to January 16, 2025. Curated by Domitille d’Orgeval, the exhibition brings together 17 artists from Latin America, whose works, produced since the 1960s, focus on thread, weaving, braiding and knotting. These practices, deeply rooted in the region’s vernacular traditions, evoke ancestral memories and universal archetypes, linking cultures and generations.

The thread, in these works, symbolizes powerful notions such as the union between the temporal and the spiritual, the instant and the eternal, or the human and the divine. This echoes ancient practices, such as those of the Kogi of Colombia, for whom the sacred thread represents a deep spiritual connection, or the Inca quipus, devices made of knotted cords used to record information and stories. In the Western imagination, thread also plays a central role in many mythological tales, such as those of the Fates, Ariadne and Penelope, where it symbolizes human destiny, the path to redemption and eternal love.

The exhibition highlights the diverse approaches of these internationally acclaimed artists, and includes works by Kenia Almaraz Murillo, Olga de Amaral, Milton Becerra, Inés Blumencweig, Iván Contreras Brunet, Elias Crespin, Jorge Eielson, Vanessa Enríquez, Sidival Fila, Gego, Martha Le Parc, Anna Maria Maiolino, Sandra Monterroso, Laura Sánchez Filomeno, Jesús Rafael Soto, Cecilia Vicuña, Natalia Villanueva Linares.