Palíndromo Incesto (1990-1992) was featured in the itinerant exhibition ‘Latin American Artists of the Twentieth Century,’ presented in several European institutions before arriving at the MoMA – Museum of Modern Art in New York, in 1993. The title indicates several possible interpretations. A palindrome is a word or phrase that reads the same backward and forward. Whether between words or phrases, this circular dynamic reappears in the work of Tunga through his interest in movement, transformation, and cycles.

‘Incest,’ on the other hand, might add its literal meaning (sexual intercourse between persons too closely related) or simply be taken as a wordplay with the term ‘cesto’ (basket). The magnified elements allude to weaving instruments, like needle, thimble, thread, and basket, and they are covered by magnets and copper leaves, which creates an invisible field of magnetic tension.