Artists for Democracy, 1974-2014
Artists for Democracy (AFD) was founded on May 6th, 1974, in London by Cecilia Vicuña, David Medalla, John Dugger, and Guy Brett to organize The Arts Festival for Democracy in Chile and other projects of solidarity with liberation struggles around the world. AFD mobilized artists and intellectuals around the world, who responded to our call to donate and create art works to be auctioned in support of the Chilean struggle to restore democracy.
PARACAS, 1983
A film by Cecilia Vicuña
Music by José Pérez de Arce Claudio Mercado
Lyrics by Cecilia Vicuña
Three-dimensional animation of a 2000 year old pre-Columbian textile created in the Paracas/Nazca region of Perú. The textile is now in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum of New York. In this work the artist brings back to life the poetic universe of the desert transformed into a garden by its ancient inhabitants. The original music was composed and performed especially for this work by José Pérez de Arce and Claudio Mercado along with chants by Cecilia Vicuña.
Kon Kon (trailer), 2010
In this documentary poem, Cecilia returns to Con Con beach, the birthplace of her art in Chile, where the sea is dying and an ancient tradition is being wiped out. Con Con, facing Aconcagua the tallest mountain in the Western hemisphere, has a cultural heritage going back thousands of years. Over centuries, the "sonido rajado", a powerful and unique sound emerged. Revisiting the site, she explores the connections between her art and the ancient music and oral traditions while witnessing to the ecological and cultural destruction of place.