The Impossible Museum Of Living Things – Department of Pan-Continental Integration (Triangular Area of Contact)

Context-specific installation*, variable dimensions, diverse materials. 2014

This iteration of The Impossible Museum of Living Things unfolds as an intricate objectual narrative about the recent Chilean-Peruvian maritime dispute, that resulted in a almost 300m of unclaimed land. The installation gathers and intervenes on imagery and objects (by means of graphic elements and assemblages) as a way to evoke the current status of this territorial, political and cultural situation.

The project takes its name from the current journalistic denomination of this territorial and maritime case. The photo-prints, conjugated to the objects, evoke alternative chapters, side effects and other specific aspects of this episode. Together with each element of the installation are ‘museum labels’ with factual-fictional details about the presented elements. It is also accounted in the project some historic events surrounding the case, that dates back to the Pacific War (in 19th century), in an attempt to reconstruct a hypothetical archaeology around the actual situation.

Alluding to the implied invisibility of the artifacts related to the case, the construction of these hypothetical objects (as artifacts) – made from local and popular materials found in daily life – may also refer indirectly to moments of sociocultural and political visibility linked to the long-term dispute. Serving as a display structure for docu-fictional ‘artifacts’, the overall installation works conceptually on diverse moments and situations regarding this disputed area, as also touches in some of its unseen points of contact.

*The project results from an almost 10 days staying of the artist in Lima, in which he conducted research and field works to generate the actual formalization of the project.

Exhibited at:
ParC Solo Projects, Lima, Peru.