Mercedes Azpilicueta: CaccHho CucchhA

“CaccHho CucchhA is actually more than an exhibition. It is a concept, a flexible body, a device, a tool.” —Mercedes Azpilicueta

Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein is presenting a new exhibition in the free-admission side-light gallery: CaccHho CucchhA. This adaptable installation by Mercedes Azpilicueta (b. 1981 in La Plata, Argentina) invites children and adults to explore, play and invent together.

CaccHho CucchhA unfolds into a space for resonance in which motion, touch and interaction give rise to quiet sounds and rhythms. “Cacho” is a fragment of time that is immeasurable or leftover. In Argentinian slang, “cucha” means a shelter or safe place. CaccHho CucchhA refers to a time beyond any logics of productivity. Instead, it favours self-directed play as an inventive, emancipatory and community-forming activity.

The central, large-format tapestry interweaves images of children playing in Gaza with the artist’s drawings and photographs of Aldo van Eyck’s play sculptures. The Dutch architect studied in Zurich during the Second World War. Back in Amsterdam, he began designing playgrounds as focal points of social interaction at the heart of the city. In the manner of an illustrated open book, the tapestry weaves together aspects of time and geography with various themes. Playground platforms and spatial structures invite visitors to join in. Costumes that make sounds alter the way they move. Stepping into the role of rattling roots, jumping barnacles, scraping cicadas and rainy slugs, together children and adults compose stories, gestures and sounds. Inspired by elements of nature, animal fables, migration narratives and embodied knowledge, Azpilicueta creates an environment that combines aesthetic experience, a wide range of languages and situations of open play.

Mercedes Azpilicueta has created a new series of works for CaccHho CucchhA in Vaduz that focuses on the underwater world. “I researched plankton and dinoflagellates that live in corals, as well as jellyfish and algae”, says the artist. This gave rise to five characters devised especially for younger children. Their names are: Cha Cha Medusa, Tac Tac Plankton, Din Din Marin, Co Co Coral and Sea Sea Spongy. Azpilicueta has also collaborated with a weaving workshop in Bourgogne, France, to develop a hand-tufted rug inspired by different coral reefs.

The exhibition was initiated and curated by de Appel in Amsterdam and realised as a co-production. It was further developed for Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein and extended to include two embroidered tapestries by Ferdinand Nigg (1865–1949). The artist born in Vaduz, Liechtenstein, became a master of cross-stitch in the early 20th century. The existing project kollabor. Art+space for small children (aged zero to four) is thus expanded to include opportunities for four- to twelve-year-olds and a new artistic approach.

Regular playshops with sessions involving movement, sound making, free play, invention and storytelling. Visit kunstmuseum.li for the complete programme.

Supported by the Hans Groeber Foundation and other sponsors.

The exhibition will then travel to the Temporary Gallery in Cologne, Germany, and the KinderKunstLabor for Contemporary Art in St. Pölten, Austria.

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