Human Zoo + Extinction + Declassified
The work Zoo List (2023) and the mixed media work The Whiteness (2024) belong to the series Human Zoo.
Through the investigation of documents, archives, and repositories from different time periods, the works in Human Zoo are a testimony to the existence of the 156 human zoos that took place in 141 cities in 19 countries in Europe and North America between the years of 1822 and 1958. In them, 30.000 individuals belonging to 126 peoples from different territories around the world were exhibited as part of a colonial strategy that constructed and promoted the notion of European cultural and racial superiority. Nearly half a billion spectators visited these exhibitions over the course of 140 years and engaged with displays that served to popularize colonial, scientific, and cultural racism.
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The work Extinction (2024) refers to drawings made by John White in 1585, the first watercolorist to create a visual record of the tribes that inhabited North America. These sketches are the only visual records of the American Indians before their contact with Europeans. White’s portraits of elders and chiefs show a different, pre-racialized view of the settlers. In general, the people in the portraits are smiling, laughing, or talking. Jarpa was interested in the vitality these images convey, which provide a stark contrast to the extinction and persecution later committed against these tribes.
The images offer a poignant counterpoint to the racialization and humiliation inherent in the colonization of non-European and North American territories during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In juxtaposing them with the phenomenon of human zoos, the artist highlights the stark disparities and implications of such dehumanizing practices.
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The installation Declassified for IN SITU and a lightbox presented in the booth address the activities of the CIA in South America. The interventions consist of documentary and archive material from Latin American countries during the Cold War.
The documents belong to paperwork of Intelligence Agencies from the United States of America, which cover the historical period spanning 1948 to 1991.
exhibición:
INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY ART FAIR. EXPOSURE SECTION, CURATED BY ROSARIO GÜIRALDES, AND IN/SITU SECTION CURATED BY AMARA ANTILLA
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Especificación:
- 2023
Zoo List
Prints on transparent PVC - The Whiteness
Print on paper and organdy - Extinction
Print, acrylic and watercolor on Amate paper - Declassified
Lightbox - IN/SITU Section
Declassified
Printed strips on backlight film