Ministry of Foreign Affairs and UNESCO sign an agreement to preserve the Textile Art of Taquile.
The Project will allow for the transmission of ancestral techniques of the Taquile art. It will be financed by the Government of Japan and carried out by the INC [National Institute of Culture] Press note 070-07. In order to safeguard and guarantee the continuance of the Taquile textile art throughout time, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Jose A. Garcia Belaunde and the Representative of UNESCO in Peru Catherine Muller-Marín, this morning, signed at the Palace of Torre Tagle, an agreement that will allow for the financing of the Project “"Strengthening the Transmission of the Textile Traditional Knowledge of Taquile”.It is an “Operational Plan for a Funds-in-Trust Project” related to the referred project that will allow for a fund close to 80 thousand US Dollars, granted by the government of Japan, to safeguard the textile art of Taquile; that is, to protect the traditional forms and techniques of such art, and reinforce the cultural identity of that community. The foreseen work plan includes the elaboration of an inventory of the collections of textiles of Taquile and the execution of inter generational workshops for the transmission of knowledge of the ancestral techniques of this artistic expression. There will also be documentary and educational material elaborated. These will show their cultural diversity to the country and to the world. The National Institute of Culture (INC, for its name in Spanish) and the UNESCO delegation in Peru will be the organisms in charge of executing the Project that will start next April. As is well known, the textile art of this Island in Puno, called Taquile, was proclaimed in 2005 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), as one of the 43 Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritages of Humanity after a selection carried out by an international jury. The textile art of Taquile is the result of a great diversity of activities that include the obtaining and preparing of fibers, threading, dying and weaving or knitting either manually or on looms. The “chumpis” or waistbands from Taquile are famous, decorated with colorful symbols of great complexity that mostly represent themes such as agriculture. The ceremony for the signing of the agreement was attended by the Director of the INC, Dr. Cecilia Bákula, the Charge d’ Affaires of Japan to Peru, the Mayor of Taquile, the Deputy Governor and the President of the Craftsmen Association of the Area. It is worth mentioning that the Cultural Intangible Heritage (ICH) gathers the oral and traditional expressions that are passed on from generation to generation, including the language, the performing arts, such as traditional music, dancing and theater; the social uses, rituals and festive acts, the knowledge and uses related to nature and the universe as well as the traditional crafting techniques. Lima, March 26, 2007