The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago presents contemporary art exhibitions, events, and publications. “The Ren”—as we are known by many—is an independent, non-collecting museum driven by an uncompromising commitment to artists and their ideas.
For artists, we offer an unfettered platform for bold experimentation.
Our work with artists frequently results in newly commissioned art, and these presentations in our gallery at the University of Chicago spur further scholarly and creative reflections in our publications and public programs. Events—including artist talks, lectures, screenings, concerts, readings, and more—offer further opportunities for discovery and discussion.
All exhibitions and events are free to attend.
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Join The Ren's mailing list here.
The Renaissance Society is a registered 501(c)(3). We are a member of Mod/Co, Common Field, and UChicago Arts, and we are an independent affiliate of the University of Chicago.
Image: Diego Marcon, Krapfen, 2025, installation view, the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago. Photo by Bob.
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About the exhibition
For a new project at the Renaissance Society, Germinations, Ximena Garrido-Lecca continues her research into plants originally domesticated by Andean and Mesoamerican cultures and their subsequent global dissemination. Taking center stage here is Solanum tuberosum, also known as the potato. Domesticated more than 8,000 years ago in the Altiplano region, the potato has been a pillar in the lives of Andean communities, where it is grown as a source of sustenance and attributed symbolic and spiritual value. Today, more than 4,000 potato varieties have been adapted to different altitudes and climatic conditions around the world.
In Chicago, Garrido-Lecca unveils a large-scale installation that features a huge rectangular section of bare earth covered with sprouting potatoes and two observatory platforms, along with other elements. Across its interrelated parts, the exhibition is inspired by Andean cosmovision, the planting and harvesting of potatoes as ritual events, and a traditional unit of measurement known as the papacancha, which unites space, time, and climate. Throughout Germinations, Garrido-Lecca draws on the Andean concept of Pacha, a word with diverse interrelated meanings, which evokes, among other things, a cyclical and simultaneous dimension in which past, present, and future occur.
In multiple ways, Garrido-Lecca also accentuates how the exhibition itself exists within time. The potatoes in the central papacancha field change over the passing weeks. And each day within the exhibition potatoes are boiled, one by one, and then dried, recreating a pre-Hispanic custom of measuring time using the cooking of potatoes as a reference. The resulting potato pulp is then carried to a workstation within the show, where it is mixed with plaster and molded into new forms, which the artist likens to canopas — offerings to the earth like those used for abundance rituals in Andean communities.
Curated by Karsten Lund.
Events
Opening Reception
Sat, May 17, 4-7pm with artist talk at 4pm
Notes on Space-Time
Discussion and exhibition walk-through with curator Karsten Lund and physicist Daniel Holz
Wed, May 21, 6pm
As the exhibition draws on different concepts of space-time, Germinations explores the relation of Andean and ancestral knowledge and contemporary scientific knowledge. For this casual talk and exhibition tour, curator Karsten Lund is joined by physicist and cosmologist Daniel Holz, from the University of Chicago. Holz is a leading researcher into gravitational waves, studying how ripples in space-time reveal the hidden lives of black holes and an expanding universe.
Public Reading:
Myths from the Huarochirí Manuscript
Thu, Jun 12, 7pm
Taking place within the exhibition Germinations, this public reading in English and Spanish presents excerpts from the Huarochirí Manuscript, one of the few surviving records of Quechua worldviews from the Andean region. The lively myths in this a 17th-century text feature tricksters, grieving mothers, fire gods, and elemental spirits, who embody the struggle for cosmic balance and other aspects of the underlying cosmology.
Performance: Lia Kohl
Sun, Jul 13, 7pm
For this live performance within the exhibition, Ximena Garrido-Lecca has invited Lia Kohl, a sound artist and musician in Chicago, to occupy this corner of space-time. A nimble performer and composer with a wide-ranging experimental practice, Kohl explores experiences of simultaneity here, as it connects to sound and music, while incorporating recordings of gravitational waves and other sources.
Visit renaissancesociety.org for more information.
Image: Digital collage, courtesy of the artist.
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