MIF25

Santiago Yahuarcani: The Beginning of Knowledge

4 Jul 2025 – 4 Jan 2026

Free to attend – no booking required

Date: 4 Jul 2025 – 4 Jan 2026
Venue: The Whitworth, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M15 6ER
Tickets

The Whitworth is open 10am to 5pm from Tuesday to Sunday and on Thursdays until 9pm.

Please check The Whitworth's website for up-to-date opening times.

Free to attend – no booking required

Accessibility features available for this event: Wheelchair Access

The first international solo exhibition of works by Santiago Yahuarcani – artist, Indigenous activist and leader of the Aimeni (White Heron) clan of the Uitoto people

Working from a remote Amazonia town in northern Peru, Santiago Yahuarcani creates large-scale, narrative rich paintings exploring the relationship between the Uitoto people and the natural world. Using natural pigments and materials, Yahuarcani’s work exists outside of Western art history – instead harnessing the memories, history and wisdom of his ancestors, the sacred knowledge of medicinal plants, the sounds of the jungle, and Uitoto myths that explain the multiple configurations of the universe.

Especially urgent in its retelling of the colonial extraction of natural resources and the enslavement of the Uitoto people during the Peruvian rubber boom, Yahuarcani’s art can be understood as an act of education and protest, vividly illustrating the natural scenery that once was. He explores the roots of the climate catastrophe in the long history of colonial dispossession, the eradication of spiritual worlds – and the resulting disconnection from the environment. His paintings offer profound reflections on the Uitoto people past and present, from which we have so much to learn.

Building on his presentation at the 60th Venice Biennale, The Beginning of Knowledge features more than 25 paintings from 2010 to the present, including new work and international loans.

Presented by the Whitworth as part of MIF25, this exhibition encourages us to consider alternative ways of thinking, learning, and living together with the natural world.

Supported by The Ampersand Foundation.

Credits

A project by the Whitworth, The University of Manchester. Presented as part of Manchester International Festival 2025.

Image: Santiago Yahuarcani, Sin título (Untitled) 2021, natural pigments and acrylic on llanchama, 60 x 87 cm. © Santiago Yahuarcani. Photo: CRISIS Gallery

Access information

The full address of the venue is The Whitworth, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M15 6ER and the what3words is snows.moon.quarrel.

The venue can be approached from Oxford Road, Denmark Road or through Whitworth Park.

Accessible toilets are available at The Whitworth. They are located in the shop (left on entering the via the main entrance), and on the lower ground floor (on the Oxford Road side) – access to these toilets is by lift.

A key is not required for the accessible toilets. There are gendered and gender neutral toilets at the venue.

Assistance Dogs are welcome in the gallery.

The main entrance for The Whitworth is in front of the building. There is ramped and stepped access at this entrance and the doors open automatically. No doors inside the building have to be opened manually and there is step free access throughout the majority of the building, via lift.

The Whitworth Access Information →

Travel information

Oxford Road (plus 10 minutes on the bus or around 25 minutes on foot).

St Peter’s Square (plus 10 minutes on the bus or approximately 30 minutes on foot).

Bike parking is available outside the venue. The venue also has lockers inside.

The venue can be approached from Oxford Road, Denmark Road or through Whitworth Park.

This venue is served by the following bus routes: 15, 41, 42, 43, 140 – 143, 147. Please ask for the bus stop nearest Manchester Royal Infirmary (MRI) on Oxford Road.

Denmark Road is directly adjacent to the gallery. It has step-free access to both the Park Side and Oxford Road entrances. There are a total of five disabled bays, nine spaces for car/bus drop-off and seven double-yellow line areas, which can be used by blue badge holders.

Parkside Entrance: three gallery-designated disabled bays are directly beside the park entrance along Denmark road.  A short step-free path from the park gates leads you to the parkside entrance. 

Oxford Road Entrance: There are an additional the disabled bays further along on Denmark Road for the surrounding buildings. If using these you can enter through the main gates (across the bicycle lanes) and up shallow gradient ramps leading to the automatic doors, which open inwards.

If you need any assistance when arriving, please contact the Visitor Team on 0161 275 7450 who are happy to help.

Due to the 'bus gates' on Oxford Road, general traffic is prohibited on Oxford Road between Hathersage Road and Portland Street, between 6am and 9pm, 7 days a-week.

Black cabs are allowed down this road with no restrictions.

Visitors coming from South Manchester via Wilmslow Road are advised to turn left at Moss Lane East, right at Lloyd Street North and then right onto Denmark Road.

Visitors coming from the city centre are advised to come off the Mancunian Way at Cambridge Street, follow the road down, then turn left at Denmark Road.

On-street parking (maximum stay, 2 hours) on Denmark Road. The nearest car park is on Cecil Street (M15 6GD). 

The Whitworth is 2 miles from Aviva Studios, and the route is services by the V1 and V2 bus routes.

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