Between 600 and 1000, long before the Inca, the Wari forged a complex society widely regarded today as ancient Peru's first empire. Wari Empirical Arts, the first exhibition of its kind in Europe, opens up this exciting yet virtually unknown episode in ancient American history through a selection of startlingly beautiful art works in all major Wari media: masterful ceramics; precious sculpture; and sumptuous garments from one of the world's most distinguished textile traditions.
It’s these outstanding Wari tunics that consists of two woven panels stitched together—except at the centre, to leave an opening for the head—to form a sleeveless, knee-length garment with a V-shaped neck opening. Both its front and back are decorated with columns of imbricated motifs that alternate with bands of plain, gold-like colour. The design elements on many of these textiles are so abstracted that they are ineligible to most present-day viewers, making it a work that is visually reminiscent of Abstract Expressionism while remaining deeply Andean it its form and structure.
Was this mode of representation meant to reinforce a visual effect of the tunic when worn and in movement? Was it intended to be observed after consuming psychotropic substances that might have impacted the perception of certain motifs? Whatever the reason may be, it is undeniable that Wari tapestry tunics were esoteric objects in the Andes, their complex iconography perhaps only fully understood by a select few. Yet in its masterful interplay of formal imagination with meticulous weaving, its overall message of sophistication would be lost on no one.
With their intricate designs and vivid colours, Wari tapestry tunics are some of the most striking textile creations of the ancient Andes. Their unconventional use of distortion, abstraction, and deconstruction challenges the longstanding scholarly view of the arts of the indigenous Americas as uninventive, and subject to oppressing cultural norms. These tunics masterfully illustrates the level of skill and creativity reached by Wari artists.