For the Wiese Foundation, sharing with society is fundamental. The awareness that the riches of Peruvian past are key pieces for the foundations of the identity of the country and the basis for the construction of a solid Peru is added to its efforts in health, art and education.
The incredible findings of the Archaeological Project of El Brujo, carried out by the Wiese Foundation in collaboration with other institutions, are wonders which have to be shared with Peru and the rest of the world. After almost 20 years of thorough research in charge of the top specialists, the Archaeological Site of El Brujo was opened to public, at first with the tight canopy covering the friezes and walls and setting a structural context for the visitors; and now with the Cao Museum.
It is a museum with a dynamic approach, setting the displayed objects in a context which takes the visitor into the world of the dwellers in the Chicama valley. A fascinating tour around the daily and symbolic universe of the inhabitants of this area of Peru, where the costumes and beliefs of the past meet the ones of our days, reaches its climax with the most enigmatic finding of our time, the Señora de Cao.
Museology script– Lucero Silva
She studied anthropology at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP) and at the Fribourg University (Switzerland), and got a masters degree in Material and Visual Culture at the University College in London. Her interest for the study of the material and visual evidence of the culture has marked her participation in different anthropological, archaeological and curational projects with Fundación Telefónica, the British Museum, and the Wiese Foundation. Along with her work in the Cao Museum, she collaborates with the British Museum and is part of the teaching staff in the Visual Anthropology Masters program at the PUCP.
The Cao Museum develops a dynamic proposal which contrasts museographic options which turn the object into a static and out-of-context record. The idea was to make water central theme of the museum narrative. The site of El Brujo is located quite close to the estuary of the river and with this we came up with the title of the first hall and the beginning of the tour inside the museum, “All the waters”. Water allowed us to make several different interpretations on the pre-Hispanic cultures and at the same time it became a good connective agent among the different cultural experiences. Water and its connections with other sacred fluids, such as blood and chicha de jora, flow in the museum through texts, videos and music. This allows the visitor to get familiar with cultural experiences —strange in many ways— through more organic and sensitive processes. Unlike museums which seem like object cemeteries, the selection has been a rigorous one in order to provide the visitor with a more committed and direct link with the piece. The idea was no to stay solely with the object but to part from the object in order to achieve deeper levels of information and to save from oblivion the trajectories and relations preceding their current location in the museum. In a way, museology combines contemporary interventions with objects 5,000 years old, trying to make the stories contained in every object echo in our days among us. – Lucero Silva
Architecture – Claudia Uccelli
She was born in 1965 in Lima, Peru, and she studied Architecture and Urbanism at the Ricardo Palma University from 1985 to 1990, as well as some classes on art history and working in an architecture studio in Rome. In 1988 she opened her first studio, where she made her first remodeling and construction works, interior design and furniture design. In 1995 she graduated as Architect after her Qualified Professional Experience. She has taken part in different architectural events and art exhibitions; she has also taught at the Ricardo Palma University and continued her professional practice. Her project of the tight canopy for El Brujo was finalist at the Fifth Iberian-American Architecture Biennial, held in Montevideo, Uruguay. The project she presented for the Cao Museum, chosen in contest, is an ecological building which has considered the path of the sun and wind currents, generating a natural ventilation —save for the air-conditioned especially designed for the Señora de Cao. The modular architecture, inspired in the construction ways of the ancient people of the area, have a harmonious relation with the landscape.
The idea of the Cao Museum comes from a personal search for an aesthetic understanding of the cultures which settled in the northern coast of Peru. The use of duality, with its elements of chiaroscuro, filled and empty spaces, the location of the buildings in their territory and the materialization of their cosmogonic world were the starting point for a new proposal which is able to establish new sensory parameters of perception and of relations, both within the museum and outside. – Claudia Uccelli
Design – Arturo Higa
He studied literature at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. He is the author of Cieloextenso, released in 2002 within the book collection called Álbum del Universo Bakterial, a project which he leads and which incorporates his two passions: editorial design and Peruvian poetry. He was also the graphic producer of the Peruvian Commission of the Truth and Reconciliation (2003). He currently shares Sputnik with writers, designers, editors and artists focusing on printed books. His works were selected for the I Biennial Iberian-American Design Exhibition BID_08 (Madrid, 2008).
I’ve tried to integrate all the elements which make this museum a special one with the graphic design work: to make an on-site museum in a place with more than 5 thousand years of uninterrupted occupation, to show the archaeological heritage of more than 20 years of research and preservation, and above all, to develop graphic contents associated to the architectural and museological proposal. All of this makes the museum offer visitors the possibility to interact with the history of its residents and their material records. It also allows concepts—just to name a couple of examples— as essential as water or the meaning of life to be experimented in the tour around the rooms. I understand this museum is also an open book: a rich and endless space open to different interpretations. – Arturo Higa
In order to take the visitor to the rich universe of the people of the Chicama valley —from the pre-Hispanic to the more contemporary— we turned to the best specialists. The audio and visual materials and devices displayed in the museum turn this journey to the world of the Mochicas, their ancestors and descendants into a tangible, organic and sensitive experience.
Augusto Thorndike and Jhon Narváez made the videos of the current production of chicha de jora, fishing nets and basket-making.
The video edition of the removal of the bundles of the Señora de Cao was carried out by Delia Ackerman and Javier Arciniega.
The video on the ritual battles was made by the BBC.
In the store of the Cao Museum you will find a selection of the best works done by the craftsmen in Magdalena de Cao, as well as innovative articles which reinterpret the icons of the ancient inhabitants of the Chimaca valley and of pre-Hispanic art.
Cao Museum
Archaeological Site of El Brujo, Magdalena de Cao, Ascope, La Libertad.
Business hours
9 a.m. a 5 p.m.
You will find specialized guides in the museum. If you want, the visit may be self-guided.
Entrance fees
General: S/. 11.
Children and school students: S/. 1.
Pensioners and university students: S/. 6.
How to get there
At the Santa Cruz bus stop (opposite the Complejo Deportivo Chicago, in Trujillo) one can take one of the buses and vans which leave every thirty minutes to Chocope. The ride is 45 minutes long and is approximately S/. 3. There are buses from Chocope to Magdalena de Cao; the ride is 20 minutes long and the fare is S/. 1.50.
Contact person
Lyda García - Project Coordinator
The Wiese Foundation
Canaval y Moreyra 522, 16th floor, San Isidro, Lima
(511) 611 4343 Ext. 127 lgarcia@gwiese.com
