Tour of Santiago Yahuarcani Exhibition: The Beginnings of Knowledge

Working from Pebas, a remote town in northern Peru, Santiago Yahuarcani creates large-scale, narrative-rich paintings using natural dyes on llanchama — a bark cloth made from the ojé tree native to the Amazon. Yahuarcani’s work exists outside of Western art history, instead harnessing ancestral memory, the sacred knowledge of medicinal plants, and the sounds of the jungle, to create artworks that are urgent acts of education and resistance.

The Beginning of Knowledge, Yahuarcani’s first international solo exhibition, brings together key works from 2010 to the present day, showcasing his profound visual storytelling over the last fifteen years. From portrayals of Uitoto origin stories to memories of the enslavement of the Uitoto people during the Putumayo genocide (1879-1912), the works honour and preserve intergenerational legacies and invite us to consider how Indigenous knowledge can shape a more just and interconnected future.

Join Darren Pih, Head of Exhibitions and Collections, and co-curator of this exhibition to learn more about Yahuarcani’s practice.

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Host or Publisher The Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society