Cecilia Vicuña is a poet, artist and filmmaker, born in Chile, who performs and exhibits her work widely in Europe, Latin America and the US. She is also a political activist and founding member of Artists for Democracy. Since l980 she has lived in New York and Chile. 

She has been creating “precarious works,” ephemeral installations in nature, cities and museums since l966, as a way of “hearing an ancient silence waiting to be heard.”  She lectures and teaches workshops and seminars, for indigenous communities, and universities, such as Naropa University, Denver University, SUNY Purchase and Universidad de Buenos Aires. She recently completed a performance tour of four Latin American countries with the American poet Jerome Rothenberg. 

Her visual work has been exhibited at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de Santiago, The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) and The Whitechapel Art Gallery in London, and at The Whitney Museum of American Art and The Museum of Modern Art, in New York, among many others. 

The author of 16 books, her poetry has been translated into several languages. Her titles include: Sabor a Mi, Chain Links, 2011; Soy Yos: Antología l966-2006, Lom Ediciones, 2011; V, tRope, 2009; Sabor a Mí, Ediciones Universidad Diego Portales, 2007; Instan, Kelsey St Press, 2002; Palabrarmas, RIL, 2005; I Tu, Tse-tse, 2004; El Templo, Situations, 2001; Cloud-Net, Art in General, l999;  UL, Four Mapuche Poets, (edited by Cecilia Vicuña), LARP, l998;  QUIPOem, The Precarious: The Art & Poetry of Cecilia Vicuña, (edited by Catherine de Zegher), Wesleyan University Press, l997; Unravelling Words & The Weaving of Water, (edited by Eliot Weinberger), Graywolf Press, l992;  Word & Thread, Royal Botanical Gardens, 1996; La Wik’uña, Francisco Zegers Editor, l990; Samara, Edition Museo Rayo, l987; Palabrarmas, El Imaginero, l984; Precario/Precarious, Tanam Press, l983; Luxumei o el Traspié de la Doctrina, Editorial Oasis, l983; SABORAMI, Beau Geste Press, l973; Templo e'Saliva / Spit Temple, a collection of her oral performances, (edited by Rosa Alcalá), is forthcoming from Ugly Duckling Presse, 2012. She co-edited The Oxford Book of Latin American Poetry (2009) and co-founded oysi.org, a wiki website for the oral cultures and poetries of the world.