“STAR WOMEN”: A LIMITED-EDITION NECKLACE INSPIRED BY WICHÍ ARTIST CLAUDIA ALARCÓN

During Frieze London Art Week, the Peruvian fine jewelry house Yanantin joins forces with Cecilia Brunson Projects, Europe’s leading gallery for Latin American art, and Argentine artist Claudia Alarcón & Silät, named ARTnews’ emerging artist of 2025, to present Star Women: a unique, limited-edition necklace inspired by Alarcón & Silät’s 2023 work Kates tsinhay [Mujeres estrellas / Star-Women].

According to Wichí myth, women were once stars in the sky who descended to Earth each night along chaguar threads they had woven themselves. They came down to feed on the fish the men had caught. When the men discovered them, they cut the threads, leaving the women on Earth.

Conceived as a collector’s piece, Star Women offers a more intimate encounter with the artistic universe of Claudia Alarcón & Silät, allowing the story to transcend the exhibition space and establish a personal relationship with the person who wears it.

Cecilia Brunson, founder of Cecilia Brunson Projects, said: “For me, this collaboration with Yanantin stems from a very special idea: bringing the universe of Silät and Claudia Alarcón to an intimate, personal scale. Their work is deeply connected to the land and to a symbolic language passed down through generations of women. Transforming part of that imaginary—in this case, the myth of the Star Woman—into a piece of jewelry allows that story to leave the exhibition space and accompany us in a completely different way, close to the body. It is a small work of art that can be carried with you, but also a way of connecting with a story, a community and a way of seeing the world.”

The piece is entirely handmade in 18-karat Fairmined gold and lab-grown diamonds, establishing a link between the artistic practice of Alarcón & Silät and Yanantin’s commitment to craftsmanship and sustainability. The collaboration also connects two Andean contexts: Alarcón’s practice is rooted in Salta, at the foot of the Argentine Andes, while Yanantin’s jewelry is handcrafted by master goldsmiths in the Peruvian Andes.

The necklace will be officially presented during London Art Week, as part of Frieze London, one of the most important fairs on the international art calendar. The presentation also coincides with Cecilia Brunson Projects’ participation in Frieze, where the gallery will show works by Claudia Alarcón and Silät. The piece can be viewed directly at Cecilia Brunson Projects or by appointment with Yanantin Jewelry.

For Claudia Alarcón & Silät, the collaboration opens a new path for their collective practice and their stories to travel: “For us, this collaboration makes possible a new way of letting our Silät and our message travel, so that they can keep finding bodies to accompany. Just as the hilulis-yicas made it possible for Wichí textiles to always be worn on the body, today the echo of the Star Women, transformed into a piece of jewelry with the support of Cecilia Brunson Projects and Yanantin, represents a beautiful expansion of the collective practice we drive and sustain. We are inspired by the unexpected paths our relationship with art continues to open, creating new ways of carrying stories forward and allowing them to transcend their original context in order to inhabit new forms, spaces and lives.”

About Claudia Alarcón & Silät
Claudia Alarcón (b. 1989, Argentina) is an Indigenous artist from the Wichí community of La Puntana, in northern Salta, Argentina. Her artistic practice takes on a collective dimension through Silät, the collective she leads, formed in 2023 and made up of approximately one hundred Wichí weavers of different generations from the communities of Alto la Sierra and La Puntana. Silät is the collective expression of Alarcón’s practice, articulated through shared knowledge, techniques and a visual language passed down among Wichí women.

Alarcón has received major recognition for her work. In 2022, she became the first Indigenous woman to receive an award at Argentina’s Salón Nacional de Artes Visuales, and was also awarded the Ama Amoedo Acquisition Prize at Pinta Miami. More recently, her practice was presented in Living, Weaving, her first solo exhibition at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP), curated by Adriano Pedrosa and Laura Cosendey.