«Ancient Peruvian Cultures: The Imagery of the Moche»

Strong in form, rich in detail and with a haunting visual language: the objects of the Moche culture at the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich provide a glimpse of a multilayered society inhabiting the coast of northern Peru between the first and eight centuries AD. A large part of the collection came to the museum as early as the 1930s and thus marks the beginning of the scholarly study of this culture.

Particularly striking are the ceramic vessels, which were produced in series based on models and show signs of careful workmanship. Stirrup spout vessels and realistic portrait vessels depict people, animals and scenes from rituals and everyday life with unusual precision. Complemented by textile fragments, a visual world comes to light that conveys a picture of the ancient culture’s social structures, religious ideas and political power relations.