Nicolás Grum at Sala de Arte CCU
Nicolás Grum’s set up The Huanca Rebel, 2022, was impressed by a visit to the American Museum of Pure Historical past in New York. Among the many glass show instances, the artist encountered “Copper Man,” a pre-Columbian mummy that had been found in a mine in Chuquicamata within the north of Chile. Grum used the historical past of this human-cum-artifact to problem the ways of colonial appropriation used to construct museum collections.
For the set up, Grum erected an actual copy of the show instances discovered within the American Museum of Pure Historical past, solely right here the glass is shattered and the panels smashed. Simply behind the case, a forged reproduction of the Copper Man lies curled on a mound of earth on the ground. The tableau suggests an (unsuccessful) escape try. On the wall are a map and two quotes spelled out by means of preparations of copper pipes: one excerpts a letter from the primary purchaser of the mother, whereas the opposite frames a pamphlet from his first exhibition in america. Each texts are in English. Paperwork in one other showcase observe the mother’s itinerary after its discovery, together with a cease on the Chilean pavilion on the Pan-American Exposition in 1901 in Buffalo, earlier than banker J. P. Morgan bought it. Resting on soil in a particular glass field are two fingers that the artist crafted in copper to allude to the mother’s lacking digits. These are stored cautious watch over by a dressing up that was used for an intervention throughout the New York museum. Footage of the occasion reveals performer Jacinta Torres strolling by means of the galleries, casually analyzing the shows. When she lastly involves the mother, she bursts into tears, a type of act of reparation. This exhibition—with its archives and replicas—seeks to carry out an identical penance, bearing witness to the how colonial extraction was not restricted to treasured minerals and ore, however handled human beings as simply one other uncooked materials.
Translated from Spanish by Kate Sutton.
— Mariairis Flores
