The performance takes as central inspiration the myth of the Babel tower. In the choreography, the bodies of performers become letters, reproducing one alphabet, speaking of a world where language was the same for all, as it was in the beginning of time before God’s punishment, according to the biblical myth. Etcheverria employs careful attention to the set-up of architectural elements and costumes that form a mise-en-scene. Whilst presenting us with something real, these architectural forms and set-ups also give free reign to the imagination” - curator Cristina Bută.

Concept and choreography by Arantxa Etcheverria @arantxa_etcheverria
Exhibition curated by Cristina Bută @crissbuta

Performers: Maria Mora, Eliza Trefas, Mara Verhoogt
Courtesy of Arantxa Etcheverria and Sector 1 Gallery

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Info & photo credits: Sector 1 Gallery

Inca (1400-1532 A.D.) Aríbalo con representación dragonflies and other insects, molded and painted 23.8 x 18.8 x 14.3 cm (Museo Larco, Lima)

The exhibition addresses the absence of the concept of “art” as we understand it today. Objects were not symbolic representations of the Incas but embodied a sacred and powerful essence. Their value resided in their connection to the supernatural and in their function within ritual and everyday practices. For example, canopies, figures used in offerings, were not decorative objects, but animated bodies with a ceremonial and spiritual purpose.

One of the highlights is the exploration of the quipu, the system of knotted strings used by the Incas to record economic and narrative information, revealing the sophistication of their state administration. This device and depictions of agricultural terraces and the chasquis system illustrate how the Incas efficiently managed an empire that spanned more than two million square kilometers.

PROA Foundation

The exhibition not only highlights the technological expertise and political vision of the Incas but also their relationship with the sacred. Objects such as conopas and camelid textiles show how art and spirituality converged, materializing beliefs in animated bodies and agricultural ceremonies. The exhibition also includes audiovisual resources documenting their influence in northwestern Argentina, connecting past and present through archaeological sites such as Salta and Catamarca.

In terms of curatorial design, the exhibition manages to balance its pedagogical value with a powerful visual narrative, inviting the public to reflect on the lasting influence of the Incas on contemporary Andean culture. In addition, the agenda of educational activities complements the experience, making this exhibition a must-see for both history buffs and those seeking to delve deeper into Latin American cultural heritage.

“Los Incas. Más allá de un imperio” provides a unique opportunity to immerse oneself in one of the most fascinating civilizations of the Americas.

Damian Ortega

The exhibition proposes an atypical symbiosis, through artists of the same generation who were first recognized internationally before being recognized at home, who enter from different perspectives in the fragmentation; the sum of the parts that can compose an idea -nation, vocabulary, history, industry, etc- but that does not stop being an illusion and that has self-construction as its axis. Thus, in the different spaces you can visit the video installation of Julieta Aranda, the “constructed” works of Abraham Cruzvillegas, the multimedia art of Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, and the expanded art of Damián Ortega.

At the entrance is “Stealing one's corpse” (an alternative set of support points for an ascent to darkness), where Julieta Aranda (1975) proposes, through a video and installations, “a science fiction story that problematizes about freedom”, based on “traps for animals of different types and times”. According to the exhibition organizers, the artist “investigates the link between the prey and the predator, with the figure of the human being, from her point of view, crossed by this duality: he is both the hunter and the hunted. So, he argues, there is no way out, except madness”.

In the next room, Abraham Cruzvillegas (1968) presents a series of paintings on large canvases, drawings with familiarity to shodō, five canvases made for the exhibition and intervened being on the floor with a broom, a mural collage with papers that he has accumulated for 3 decades, which is the only one made in Mexico; and sculptures created for the show from leftovers of metallurgical plants and natural materials, such as earth. For the artist, all these works are considered self-portraits.

Next is “Matriz de voz”, a sound-visual piece by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer (1967), the first artist to represent Mexico at the Venice Biennale in 2007, who specializes in the production of platforms for public participation, in which through technology - robotic lights, digital sources, computerized surveillance, multimedia walls, and telematic networks - he manages, as in this case, to generate transhuman perspectives. The work is a luminous system deployed horizontally, which flickers from the reproduction of some 800 recorded voices that fuse. At one end, the visitor can press the intercom button on an electric buzzer system to enter a phrase into the choir, which begins to replicate and slowly disappears into the chorus.

Finally, on the second floor of the La Boca space, Damián Ortega (1967) presents “Cosmic Thing”, an expanded art piece that has traveled the world, in which he dissects a '98 Volkswagen Beetle to suspend its parts in space, creating a sort of frozen explosion that suggests both the deconstruction of the piece and the fragmentation of the ideas it represents. In addition, a video installation “Sobre Escarabajo” (On Beetle) is presented, in which a funerary burial of the Beetle he had inherited from his father is observed.

Location: PROA Foundation, Av. Don Pedro de Mendoza 1929, C1169 CABA, Buenos Aires (Argentina)

Opening Date: 16th March 2024 

End Date: 11th June 2024

Working hours: Wednesday-Sunday: 12pm to 19 pm

Official website: https://www.proa.org/esp/

Artists: