Artist Cecilia Vicuña, now 78, is returning to London for her first major UK exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery. This marks her return more than half a century after she arrived in the city on a British Council scholarship.
Vicuña was 24 when she initially came to London to study at the Slade School of Art. Her stay became permanent after General Augusto Pinochet's military coup in Chile in September 1973. She was among Chilean students in London who were expelled from their universities and expected to leave Britain.
At a Home Office hearing, her lawyers successfully argued that she would face death if she returned to Chile, presenting her art and poetry book, Saborami, as evidence. Judges subsequently granted her asylum.
The upcoming exhibition, titled 'Living Threads', will feature six decades of Vicuña's work, including painting, textile, photography, installation, and film. It will also highlight her political activism, including her co-founding of Artists for Democracy in 1974.