AS WE DWELL IN THE FOLD
2023


As we dwell in the fold is the first solo exhibition of Peruvian artist Andrea Canepa in the United States. As an immersive, large-scale, wearable installation of metal and fabric sculptures, the piece is designed to be a tactile and experiential work activated first by a performance and later by the audience of the exhibition. All objects can be interacted with wherein visitors alter the space through their experimentation with the many forms. This new project is in part inspired by Canepa’s research into various protective fabrics and their relation to the body: from funerary bundles of the ancient Paracas pre-columbian culture to tapadas—Peruvian women in colonial Lima who used a veil to cover their faces revealing just one eye—up to the folding patterns of modern-day parachutes. Drawing from ancient rituals and the Andean cultures’ mythology of the underworld and death, Canepa explores how fabrics shape the way we relate to our bodies and the political and social aspects of un/wrapping or un/covering it. For the artist, fabrics can function as a preservation device - of the body, of identity- when they envelope it, but also as an aid to transcend body limits when they expand from it.


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Andrea Canepa: As we dwell in the fold installation view at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University, 2023. Photo: Vincent Morse/MSU Broad Art Museum.




Andrea Canepa: As we dwell in the fold performance at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University, 2023. Photo: Vincent Morse/MSU Broad Art Museum.






Andrea Canepa: As we dwell in the fold installation view at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University, 2023. Photo: Vincent Morse/MSU Broad Art Museum.




Andrea Canepa: As we dwell in the fold, Performance




Andrea Canepa: As we dwell in the fold installation view at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University, 2023. Photo: Vincent Morse/MSU Broad Art Museum.




Andrea Canepa: As we dwell in the fold, publication



Andrea Canepa: As we dwell in the fold, Performance