Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea has opened Cecilia Vicuña's first solo museum exhibition in Italy, titled 'El glaciar ido (The vanished glacier).' The exhibition, curated by Marcella Beccaria and running until September 2026, features a major new site-specific commission: a monumental, horizontal 'quipu acostado' installation suspended in the Manica Lunga gallery, created from raw wool and incorporating participatory elements from local communities.
The exhibition is significant as it highlights the influential, decades-spanning practice of Vicuña, a Chilean-born artist, poet, and activist known for her 'Arte Precario' and focus on feminist, ecological, and decolonial themes. By reinterpreting the ancient Andean quipu—a knotted cord recording system—as an immersive environmental installation, the work connects local geological history, specifically the vanished glaciers of the Valle di Susa, with broader concerns about cultural heritage, transience, and human interaction with the natural world. It reinforces Vicuña's role in contemporary art and marks her return to the institution that first introduced her work in Italy over two decades ago.