Knot: Lima Curatorial Statement

Knot

Issue 2 Creative Cities

Knot: Lima Curatorial Statement

Creative Cities is an online journal and commissioning platform that explores local art scenes. Its second issue Knot looks at Lima within the context of the Incan tradition of quipu and asks how knowledge is recorded, as well as looking at the contemporary debate over who has access to narrative and representation.

The knot is an ancient symbol that suggests everything from the interdependency of relationships to the complexity of a tricky bind. The spinning of thread that forms a knot creates an object which seemingly has no beginning or end.

In the context of Peru, these metaphorical associations come into their own as historic knots have overcome time and distance to relate knowledge about the Incas and their predecessors. Whereas mark making by other civilisations birthed writing systems that used graphemes, the Incas inherited a three-dimensional system that used knotted strings. Called quipus, these unassuming structures combined a system of cords and strategically spun threads to position knots in such a way that they provided quantitative records for a whole empire. The quipus’ ability to record narrative is not as well understood as their predisposition to classifiable, decimal information. Of the 600 extant examples a third do not confirm the principles of the numerical quipu, whose binary organisation suited the Incas’ hierarchical society. These knotted strings were able to hold stories; strengthening culture through the myth, poetry, astrological predictions and genealogies they recorded.

Discoveries of quipus have lain uninterpreted for centuries. The system’s unique qualities were a strategic advantage as the Inca empire fell to the Spanish conquistadors, but it has meant that the story of this transition of power has been told through the written records of the Spanish. The politics of knowledge, how it is recorded and who has access to it, are made apparent in this early example of an information system that was incomprehensible to outsiders. Recent study of quipu has unravelled its meaning to some extent, revealing a recording system that answered the need to unite different parts of a vast empire.

Contemporary engagement with quipu offers a perspective on pre-colonial life, but it also offers a means with which artists can question who has access to language, knowledge, and memory. Engaging with this lost language of knots now is poignant as it recorded the tributes made by ordinary people to the wider society. Today, the knots inspire as they make visible the ties of unity between individuals.

Further information on Quipus can be found here.