Invent Your Task
264 Canal Street #3W
New York, NY 10013
5:30 pm ET
RSVP here. Seating is first come, first serve. RSVP does not guarantee entry, but helps us track interest and send event updates and reminders.
EAI, Triple Canopy, and Book Works are pleased to present Invent Your Task, an evening with Cecilia Vicuña, Luke Roberts & Amy Tobin coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Vicuña’s Saborami (1973), and the publication of Book Works' expanded facsimilie edition with contributions by Roberts and Tobin.
Written in the aftermath of the 1973 military coup in Chile and ensuing instatement of dictator Agusto Pinochet, Saborami combines poetry, journal entries, and documentation of artworks to underscore the role of culture in political struggle, outlining an eco-socialist and feminist vision in the face of defeat. Addressing fellow artists, Vicuña writes, “Choose where you want to work, choose. Invent your task, do it! All together to destroy reactionary ideas, bourgeois ideology, individualism, solemnity, all white, European, capitalist ways of existence!”
EAI will screen Vicuña's Sol y Dar y Dad, Una palabra bailada (1980), What is Poetry To You? (1980), and Kon Kon (2010) before a conversation between Vicuña, Tobin, and Roberts. Saborami will be available for sale, alongside Sol y Dar y Dad (2024), a poster made in response to the urgent humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Proceeds from the sale of the poster will be donated to
Medical Aid for Palestinians.
Vicuña will be honored at Triple Canopy’s 2024 benefit on Monday, June 3. Read more about the event (and purchase tickets) here.
Invent Your Task is made possible through the generous support of Lambent Foundation/Fund of Tides Foundation; Critical Minded, an initiative to invest in cultural critics of color cofounded by the Nathan Cummings Foundation and the Ford Foundation; the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; the National Endowment for the Arts; the New York State Council on the Arts; the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; the Stolbun Family; and Triple Canopy Director’s Circle.
