ICPR Amsterdam · June 2026
The mandala
that went to Amsterdam.
In June 2026, at the Interdisciplinary Conference on Psychedelic Research in Amsterdam, a single cloth travelled from Nueva Nazareth to a room full of researchers: Simi Vásquez Maldonado's Floral Mandala on Indigo.
It was the first time kené from the Kene Rao Foundation had been shown to an international audience with the artisan named on the wall beside it — not as anonymous "Amazonian textile", but as a work with an author.
Thank you to everyone who came by, looked closely, and asked what the lines meant. That question is the whole point.
Why it mattered
An author, not
an artefact.
Shipibo design has circulated internationally for decades — on album covers, on clothing, in retreat centres and galleries — usually without the name of the woman who drew it, and almost always without payment reaching her. Showing one cloth, with its maker named, is a small correction to a long pattern.
Before, the kené was patented without consent, without consultation, without royalties. They stole a lot. We are the first institution that took the initiative to change that. Demer · Fundación Kene Rao
Work from the foundation's artisans continues. If you would like to know when the next pieces arrive, the list below is the only place it will be announced.
Stay close
Be told first.
Leave your email and we will write when new work comes from Pucallpa.