From Hands to Loom to Bloom

Performance by Cristina Flores Pescorán

Cristina Flores Pescorán, Mesa Ritual, Chola Body Story (2023), Jan van Eyck Academie

How do human bodies heal? What does it mean for the body to flourish? How could sickness, treatment, and recovery be reconsidered? Inspired by the healing rituals of northern Peru, where her family is from, Cristina Flores Pescorán presents a textile space in which she invokes a collective ceremony to connect the human body with the woven textile. Fabrics, herbal remedies, self-made looms, and the gesture of weaving come together to expand sensibility of the body and open a space for healing. 

Transforming the medical gauze that once enveloped her body during her chemotherapeutical treatment of skin cancer into an altar, Flores Pescorán finds ways to rewrite her healing process through the reticular weaving technique of Chancay gauze. The technique has its origins in the pre-Inca Chancay culture, which developed on the central coast of Peru between 1200 and 1470. Treating the textile as an extension of the human body, Flores Pescorán invites the audience into a practice of collective healing, opening up the weaving structure to broaden and reconfigure it. Participants are invited to sense the stories held in each knot and thread as they unravel and weave. Dyed with the purple corn traditionally used to prepare the non-fermented drink chicha morada, the fabric connects ancient memories of celebration and animistic cultures with forgotten knowledge of anti-inflammatory and antioxidant practices.

Part of L is for the Way You Look at Me II

Meeting point: Ceija Stojka Foyer

Next date:

• Date Sunday, 20/September/2026 17:30 bis 19:00
• Venue Haus der Kulturen der Welt
• Address John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10, 10557 Berlin-Tiergarten