PAST EVENT
Cecilia Vicuña: performative poetry reading & book launch
Tuesday 27 February, 2024
5.30–7.30pm
Newnham College Cambridge
Free and open to all. More information/RSVP.
Join Cambridge Visual Culture to celebrate the publication of a new edition of Saborami with Chilean artist and poet Cecilia Vicuña.
Cecilia Vicuña created Saborami in the aftermath of the September 1973 military coup in Chile. Combining poetry, journal entries, documentation of artworks including assemblages and paintings, the book was first published in Devon, England in an edition of 250 hand-made copies by the artist-led Beau Geste Press. It was one of the first artistic responses to the violence of the military junta.
Coinciding with the fiftieth anniversary of the book’s original publication and of the coup in Chile, this expanded edition published contains a new introduction by art historian and curator Amy Tobin and poet and writer Luke Roberts. It includes rarely seen archival material from Vicuña’s time in London, such as contributions to the feminist newspaper Spare Rib, commentary from BBC coverage, and her role in Artists for Democracy in Chile and other solidarity campaigns.
Cecilia Vicuña is an internationally renowned visual artist and poet. Born in Chile in 1948, she lived in England between 1972 and 1975. After a period in Bogota, Colombia, she settled in New York City, where she lives and works today. Her New and Selected Poems were published by Kelsey Street in 2018. At the Venice Biennale in 2022 she won the Golden Lion award for Lifetime Achievement.