Santiago Yahuarcani: The Beginning of Knowledge - Publication

Santiago Yahuarcani: The Beginning of Knowledge if the first monographic publication dedicated to the work of Santiago Yahuarcani, a contemporary artist and Indigenous Leader from the Uitoto people of the Peruvian Amazon. His visually compelling paintings connect myth and memory, ecology and history, past and future. 

This publication accompanies the exhibitions presented at the Whitworth in Manchester, Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assiss Chateubriand (MASP) in São Paulo, and Museo Universitairio del Chopo in Mexico City, following his participation in the 2024 Biennale di Venezia. It brings together artworks created between 2005 and 2025, many painted on the llanchama - a traditional bark cloth made from Amazonian trees - using natural pigments sourced from the forests. Through this material and techniques, Yahuarcani portrays origin myths, spiritual beings, forest guardians, and moments of violence and resistance experienced by Indigenous communities. His work is rooted in oral traditions and offers a powerful visual language to preserve and renew Uitoto cultural memory.

The publication features commissioned texts and intergenerational interviews between the artist and his son, Rember Yuhuarcani. It includes 145 works, organised chronologically from newest to oldest. This book invites readers to engage with Yahuarcani's artistic universe and reflect on indigenous knowledge systems, Amazonian cultures and ecological thinking.