Trade Windings: De-Lineating the American Tropics
May 18, 2024 - Dec 01, 2024
About the Exhibition
Trade winds were the currents of air that brought Columbus to the Americas in 1492—an event that led to the establishment of trade routes across the Atlantic in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Western history has canonized this era as one of “exploration and discovery,” marked by economic, technological, and cultural “progress.” This narrative, however, neglects the realities of mass displacement, enslavement, and extraction that enabled this time of imperial prosperity.
Trade Windings: De-Lineating the American Tropics interrogates the history and legacy of trade routes by mapping them in relation to the economic and migratory realities of today. Working across media and with an expansive range of materials, including colonial products such as coffee, tea, gunpowder, and cotton, the artists in this exhibition expose the structural and material dimensions of coloniality while highlighting the ways it continues to haunt the world today.
Artists
- Tania Bruguera
- Rafael Ferrer
- Noé Martínez
- Ana Mendieta
- Dalton Paula
- Howardena Pindell
- Emilio Rojas
- Xaviera Simmons
- Juana Valdés
- Carrie Mae Weems
Funding
The exhibition is curated by Cecilia González Godino, Marjorie Susman Curatorial Fellow. The Marjorie Susman Curatorial Fellowship was established by members of the Susman family in honor of Marjorie Susman.
Related Content
Video: Emilio Rojas
Performance documentation, Emilio Rojas, GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM (Santa María), 2019. Courtesy of the artist.
Courtesy of the artist.Documentación de performance, Emilio Rojas, GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM (Santa María), 2019. Cortesía del artista.
These two videos by Emilio Rojas document the performance that the artist did across Europe in 2019, GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM (Santa María). Carrying a miniature replica of Christopher Columbus’s flagship, the Santa María, Rojas toured the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Portugal, France, and Spain, placing himself and the vessel in direct dialogue with buildings and monuments that represented or celebrated colonialism and its legacy. After two months and nine days—precisely the time it took for Columbus to reach the Bahamas in 1492—the artist concluded his performance by submerging his body in the waters of the Puerto de Palos, in Huelva, Spain, holding the replica afloat above himself. Each of these videos has a duration of 14 minutes and 92 seconds, another echo of 1492, a year that has been idealized and questioned throughout modern history.
Estos dos videos de Emilio Rojas documentan la performance que el artista llevó a cabo en Europa en 2019, GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM (Santa María) , traducido como “regresa al lugar del que viniste”. Cargando con una réplica en miniatura de la Santa María, el buque insignia de la flota de Cristóbal Colón, Rojas recorrió el Reino Unido, los Países Bajos, Portugal, Francia y España, para ponerse a sí mismo y a la embarcación en diálogo con arquitecturas y monumentos que representan o celebran el colonialismo y su legado. Tras dos meses y nueve días, precisamente el tiempo que Colón tardó en avistar y desembarcar en las Bahamas en 1492, el artista concluyó la performance con su cuerpo hundido en las aguas del Puerto de Palos, en Huelva, España, manteniendo la réplica a flote sobre sí mismo, y finalmente prendiéndole fuego. Cada uno de estos videos tiene una duración que el artista describe como de “14 minutos y 92 segundos”, otro eco de 1492, un año que se ha idealizado y cuestionado a lo largo de la historia moderna.