Tropologías I-IV: Andrés Pachón's Critical Art Exhibition at the National Museum of Anthropology

This exhibition features the work of artist Andrés Pachón, who critically re-examines Western collective imagination, eurocentrism, and colonial legacies through manipulated photographic archives from the museum's collection. Pachón's "interventions" dialog with historical documents to reveal the fictions within Western perspectives on exotic and tribal worlds.

Tropologías I-IV presents a critical artistic intervention by Andrés Pachón, exploring the Western collective imagination shaped by centuries of eurocentrism and colonialism. Pachón uses infographic manipulations, primarily on original photographic documents from the museum's archives, to generate new works that challenge and reveal the fictions and fantasies embedded in Western perspectives of exotic and tribal realities. The exhibition specifically questions the anthropocentric European gaze prevalent in period images, which are indebted to the Spanish colonial imaginary of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The artist's work transforms specific archival materials, including photographic portraits of Filipinos from the 1887 Exposición de Filipinas, photos of African types collected by Dr. Ripoche, images from a "human zoo" exhibition in Retiro, files of Moroccans enlisted in Melilla, and plaster casts of various ethnic groups. Pachón's "intervention" is integrated into the museum's permanent exhibition space, creating a dialogue between his contemporary works and the historical collections, offering visitors a new way of looking at these artifacts. This project is a collaboration between the Museo Nacional de Antropología and the Subdirección General de Promoción de las Bellas Artes.

This exhibition was held from February 19 to May 17, 2015. Specific ticketing or admission details for this past exhibition are not provided on the page. Further information may have been available via the downloadable dossier linked on the page.