Andean Textiles and Modern Art

The Cliché of Indigenous Art as “Exotic”

A conversation with Elvira Espejo, director of the National Museum of Ethnography and Folklore of Bolivia, about Andean textile art, the Bauhaus and Anni Albers – and about the biased perspective of many museums.

Fragment of male tunic (uncu) in tapestry technique. Originally published in: “Arte Textil Del Peru"” (José Antonio Lavalle and José Alejandro González García, 1989).

Painting by Elvira Espejo. Courtesy of the artist.

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by Mary Carmen Molina Ergueta

Mon 14 Jan, 2019

(This text was originally published in the Humboldt Magazine of the Goethe-Institute in South America.)

Bolivian artist and researcher Elvira Espejo, specialist in textile art and director of the National Museum of Ethnography and Folklore of Bolivia (MUSEF), approaches community art from the outset of the production process. Attending the process allows for a broader discussion of the influences of Andean textile art on the textile laboratory at the German Bauhaus school, as well as on its main weaving artist, Anni Albers (1899-1994).

C&AL: As an artist and researcher; which is your perspective on Andean textile art?

Elvira Espejo: Art education provided me with both academic and creative tools. However, I think the concept of community, and how it relates to science and technology, were the defining elements that really opened the door for me to understand and question, for example, museums. After my academic training in an urban environment I returned to the community. There, I was asked what had I learned in college and my answers were constituted in academic baggage. The answer from the communities is that the academic concept of knowledge makes little sense in the approach to the Andean textile art, since they are formulations from a western point of view as well as a social position or status of the academics, which stands in stark contrast with the idea of community. From this field of tension, I seek to discuss the dynamics of the pattern of the raw material in the production of textile art, from the raising of animals, over the treatment of the raw materials to the crafting and elaboration of the object. This chain was never exhibited in museums. What was shown there – for lack of knowledge – were objects under the kneecap of the artisanal. Changing these structures and deepening the science and technology of the art of the communities is what interests me.

C&AL: How has folklorical art, particularly Andean textile art, been intertwined with Western art? Do you consider there to be a tension of cultural influences and reappropriations?

EE: This is a topic which I have worked on extensively and in which I find very strong connections. The influence of pre-Columbian art on Western modern art is greater than one might assume. We can think, for example, of modern art of the twentieth century. In the work of Joaquín Torres-García (Uruguay, 1874-1949) and its relationship with Inca architecture. Cesar Paternosto (Argentina, 1931) also goes in that direction. I also see a clear connection between the geometric compositions of Piet Mondrian (Netherlands, 1872-1944) and the textiles of the Bolivian Tiahuanacu culture. The geometric composition, the color palet and the iconography of these textiles are transported directly to Mondrian. The Tiahuanacote fabrics are an inspiration that he – like other European artists of the twentieth century who approached the art of American cultures – used and superimposed in his own work.

C&AL: In the past, Andean textile art clearly had an important influence on the work at the Bauhaus textile department, specifically on the work of Anni Albers. How was this influence expressed? How do you interpret it?

EE: In the case of Anni Albers, the influence was a little further away from the iconographic and compositional. She visited the archaeological regions of southern Latin America and saw textile art up close. She sought to decipher techniques through textile iconography, reinterpreted the composition of fabrics towards abstract art and produced works that translated this influence. All the replicas that Albers made of Andean textiles for her own compositions attempt to work with the use of color in relation to the various forms of textile production. She worked with gauze, double cloth and plain fabrics. However, she did not systematize these approaches, so there are many gaps left.

It is said that the Bauhaus had its own collection of textiles from the archaeological communities of the Andean region, cut-out fragments of textiles that they brought back. These samples that the Bauhaus masters introduced as a source of inspiration worked as catalysts for a rethinking of their art and for new aesthetic concepts. However, I think that because of how abstract art was understood at that time, it did not delve into the science and technology that support textile art. The approach was from a compositional point of view and did not extend to a reflection on the chain of production.

Painting by Elvira Espejo. Courtesy of the artist.

C&AL: In the 1919 manifesto of the Bauhaus School, Walter Gropius writes: “Architects, sculptors, painters, we must all return to the crafts!”. How do you understand this idea today?

EE: The modern artist redirected his inspiration by drawing the path from craftsmanship towards art. In Europe, art was first created by artisans, then by artists. Only recently do other lines begin to form in the pattern. The traditional hierarchy has created conflicts in, for example, how museums compose from these lines. The way in which the fabrics are exhibited as if they were paintings, without recognizing that the reading of the textile is on the obverse and the reverse. The hierarchy will always exist, because essentially, it is also a monetary issue, not merely a social one.

In order for this to not affect the possible approximations, I think we need to look deeper into the science and technology that form the teacher. Moreover, it is interesting to analyze how ancient civilizations influenced artists, and I think that today the same thing is happening with contemporary art. There is a lot of interpretation and reappropriation. From time to time however, we continues to fall into the cliché of regarding folklorical art as something exotic. The question is in what and how it is understood, but also in the ways in which processes are systematized. Sometimes, the only intention is make the eye burst upon gazing at the artwork.

C&AL: Textile art is a living art. How is weaving done in the communities today?

EE: While there are those who claim that the ancient techniques are maintained completely, it is not. In terms of iconography, textile art is dynamic. We can see motifs from flora and fauna that have been around for centuries, but also contemporary elements, such as footballers or airplanes. In technical terms, I have more than a thousand replicas, to see exactly how certain technical characteristics have been transformed or have disappeared altogether. Some fabrics are very complex, works of art as well as legacies of science and technology that constitute the knowledge and profound education of a community. Many of these works never left the community. Art has not yet reflected on it. The academic structure maintains that education emanates from the West to America; this structure needs to be dispelled. I am proud to be aware that reality is not like that. In the art of the communities of these archaeological regions we possess something complex. The bad thing is that we are not documenting in that sense and it is on us as as young people to work even harder.