Inca. The Sacred Heritage of the Andes: the highlight exhibition of summer 2026
- Jun 25
- 4 min read
Updated: Jun 26
The sacred as a key to understanding the Andean world
Since the arrival of Europeans in the sixteenth century, the Incas have occupied a singular place in the European imagination: an empire associated with extraordinary feats of stone architecture, the integration of highly diverse ecological zones through an extensive road system, and the rapid unification of numerous peoples and languages within a remarkably short historical span. From early colonial accounts onward, this image became entangled with the pursuit of mineral wealth in the Andes, and with it the enduring figure of El Dorado.
Yet behind the remarkable administrative efficiency of the Tahuantinsuyu, highlighted by the work of scholars such as Terence N. D’Altroy, lies a more fundamental dimension, often difficult for a Western gaze to grasp: the centrality of the sacred as an organizing principle of Andean thought and practice.
It is precisely this framework of interpretation that lies at the core of Inca. The Sacred Heritage of the Andes, an exhibition I conceived and curated for the Hôtel Départemental des Expositions of the Var in Draguignan, French Riviera (Côte d’Azur), open to the public since 20 June 2026.
A “sacred order” built over three millennia
In the Andean cosmovision, the world is not an assemblage of inert objects, but a fabric of living, interconnected entities: mountains, rivers, ancestors, deities, and humans all participate in a single order. This worldview is grounded in a fundamental principle of reciprocity between humans and non-humans, and in a deep understanding of natural cycles.
Long before the Incas, societies such as Chavín, Nasca, Moche, Tiwanaku, and Chimú had already laid the foundations of what is today referred to as the Andean cosmovision. The Incas were able to recognize the enduring force of this spiritual legacy, incorporating and amplifying it at the heart of their imperial project: the sacred becomes a shared language, a principle of unification and legitimation for an empire extending across vast and diverse territories. Political power itself cannot be separated from this dimension; it is both its expression and its guarantor.
It is this reading, at once political, symbolic, and spiritual, that the exhibition unfolds across seven galleries distributed over three levels, through a chronological and thematic journey: from Nature to the emergence of the sacred among the Cupisnique-Chavín; from Nasca pathways of existence to Moche sacrificial practices; from ornaments of transformation to the political ancestral lineages of the Chimú; and finally to the Incas as builders of a “sacred order.”
235 masterpieces from the Andes
The exhibition brings together 235 exceptional works (ceramics, textiles, gold and silver ornaments, sculptures, and featherwork) selected from leading institutions of reference: the Museo Larco in Lima and the Museo de Arte - MALI of Lima, the Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac in Paris, the British Museum in London, the Museo de América in Madrid, the MAS Museum in Antwerp, and the Musée des Amériques in Auch.
Several of these works are being shown in France for the first time.
Among my personal highlights are the Inca unku decorated with tocapus (Museo Larco, ML600231), an imperial tunic whose patterned motifs encoded the status and function of the Inca within the empire; the jaguar-head kero (Museo de América, Madrid, 7508), a major ritual vessel closely associated with Andean ceremonial practices; and the Cupisnique contortionist (Museo de Arte in Lima, 2022.1.1), a testament to bodily transformation and to shifts in social and symbolic order.
The works have been selected for what they embody: the presence of camay, that vital breath which, in Andean thought, animates places, beings, and objects.
The scholarly catalogue
Co-published by the Département du Var and Silvana Editoriale, the exhibition catalogue spans 160 pages and includes 150 illustrations. It brings together contributions from:
Aïcha Bachir Bacha (EHESS / CNRS)
Isabel Collazos (MALI, Lima)
Peter Eeckhout (Université libre de Bruxelles)
Carole Fraresso (PhD in Archaeomaterials, independent expert in Andean goldwork)
Nicolas Goepfert (CNRS / Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)
Ulla Holmquist Pachas (Museo Larco, Lima)
Julio Rucabado Yong (Museo Larco, Lima)
A reference publication dedicated to the long-term history of Andean civilizations.
Informations
Inca. The Sacred Heritage of the Andes
Hôtel départemental des Expositions du Var in Draguignan, French Riviera (Côte d’Azur), France
June 20 – September 27, 2026
