Installation view: "Re-collections," at The Latinx Project at New York University, New York. Feb 9 - May 10, 2024. Photo by Argenis Apolinario. Courtesy of The Latinx Project at New York University.
Re-collections, The Latinx Project at New York University
Curated by Daniel Arturo Almeida
Re-collections surveys cultural extraction, Eurocentric archeology, and biased museology. Echoing an increasing demand for the restitution of looted cultural artifacts and monuments, the exhibiting artists unveil co-opted narratives obscured under the lens of ethnographic scholarship. Their collective artwork deconstructs colonial myths by destabilizing manipulated frameworks of knowledge conditioning, history making and museum display. From probing conspiracy theories plaguing the understanding of ancestral civilizations, to exposing the unethical auctioning of cultural heritage, to manifesting liberatory practices of preservation beyond the institutional gaze, the exhibition voices a need to author history and redefine heritage outside of outdated structures of legibility.
Re-collections unmounts colonial histories, fostering a space to transgress entrenched narratives and the methodologies behind their documentation, transcription, and dissemination.
Roxana Barba's video installation, De Huacas y Huaqueros, foregrounds the excavation and contraband of pre-Columbian artifacts ranging from gold, textiles, jewelry and ceramics. Among these are earthen vessels known as huacos, linked to ceremonial and everyday life uses. The term "huaquero'' is used in Peru to describe those who dig into Peruvian soil searching for extant huacos and valuables. Huaqueros work under deplorable and often life-threatening conditions in hopes of cashing a modest profit by selling their bounty to a third party, who later resells the artifacts on the Pre-Columbian antiquities market for thousands of dollars. A vast number of items sold through auction houses lack recorded provenance, accentuating the looting of the Andean country’s cultural heritage. A vast number of items sold through auction houses lack recorded provenance, accentuating the looting of the Andean country’s cultural heritage.
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Video still