Mercedes Wagner - ExExoArtefakt Kunsthaus Essen (2019)

ExExoArtefakt (Detail), Set-up 2019 at Kunsthaus Essen, GER

ExExoArtefakt, Set-up 2019 at Kunsthaus Essen, GER

ExExoArtefakt (Detail), Set-up 2019 at Kunsthaus Essen, GER

ExExoArtefakt, Set-up 2019 at Kunsthaus Essen, GER

ExExoArtefakt (Detail), Set-up 2019 at Kunsthaus Essen, GER

ExExoArtefakt, Set-up 2019 at Kunsthaus Essen, GER

ExExoArtefakt (Detail), Set-up 2019 at Kunsthaus Essen, GER

ExExoArtefakt, Set-up 2019 at Kunsthaus Essen, GER

ExExoArtefakt (Detail), Set-up 2019 at Kunsthaus Essen, GER

ExExoArtefakt, Set-up 2019 at Kunsthaus Essen, GER

Varying number of images (2015 - 2020). C-Prints, glossy, 20 x 30 cm, nutwood frames with glass. C-Prints, glossy, 30 x 45 cm, nutwood frames with and without glass. C-Prints, glossy, 105 x 70 cm, nutwood frames without glass.

The work questions representative functions of objects and photography drawing parallels between colonialism and globalization. It aims towards a discussion of the terms artifact, culture and identity. In a museum, artifacts are dissociated from their original function and become proxies for history. But as mere objects they also develop a life of their own which effects a different relationship between the exhibit and the viewer. This kind of museal staging is transfered onto everyday eadibles bearing a historical relation to Latin America, wether because they originate in this region or have been introduced there within an euro-centred export economy imposed by former colonial powers. The photographic medium detaches those eadibles from familiar meanings enabling their sculptural qualities and independent existence as objects. In a way they are artifacts themselves having been turned into crop plants. In the recontextualization with museal artifacts of pre-Colombian cultures the eadibles become unexpected proxies for colonial processes that profoundly shaped the economic system of our world until now. Drawing the line to the globalized present we futher see contemporary superfoods echoing historic appropriations of natural resources in present days. Finally, the work touches upon the issue of non-european cultural heritage dwelling in ethnological collections of the North. Does this apply to intangible goods such as exogenous crops as well? Following an alternative definition of culture which does not exclude nature, it would. Thus, this installation creates an achronological photographic space aiming towards resetting our perception of the everyday and it‘s entanglement across time, geography and man-made categories.

Helmet / Proxy for Moche Culture / Museo Larco Lima, Peru, 2015. C-print, glossy, 70 x 105 cm, nutwood frame without glass. Part of ExExoArtefakt

Mortar, Can, Coffee / Proxies / Essen, Germany, 2018. C-Print, glossy, 30 x 45 cm, nutwood frame with glass. Part of ExExoArtefakt

Potatoes (Erdbirnen) / Proxy / Essen, Germany, 2018. C-print, glossy, 20 x 30 cm, nutwood frame with glass. Part of ExExoArtefakt

Jewellery / Proxy for Moche Culture / Museo Larco Lima, Peru, 2015. C-print, glossy, 70 x 105 cm, nutwood frame without glass. Part of ExExoArtefakt

Quinoa / Proxy / Essen, Germany, 2018. C-print, glossy, 20 x 30 cm, nutwood frame with glass. Part of ExExoArtefakt

Avocado / Proxy I / Essen, Germany, 2018. C-print, glossy, 20 x 30 cm, nutwood frame with glass. Part of ExExoArtefakt

Mortar (Molcajete) / Proxy, Mexico / Latin America Collection University of Bonn, Germany, 2018. C-print, glossy, 30 x 45 cm, nutwood frame without glass. Part of ExExoArtefakt

Potatoes / Proxy / Essen, Germany, 2018. C-print, glossy, 20 x 30 cm, nutwood frame with glass. Part of ExExoArtefakt

Vanilla / Proxy / Essen, Germany, 2018. C-print, glossy, 20 x 30 cm, nutwood frame with glass. Part of ExExoArtefakt

Anthropomorphic Vase I / Proxy for Shipibo Culture / Latin America Collection University of Bonn, German, 2018. C-print, glossy, 45 x 30 cm, nutwood frame without glass. Part of
ExExoArtefakt

Chia / Proxy / Essen, Germany, 2018. C-print, glossy, 45 x 30 cm, nutwood frame with glass. Part of ExExoArtefakt

Anthropomorphic Figure / Proxy for Mojo Culture/ Latin America Collection University of Bonn, Germany, 2018. C-print, glossy, 45 x 30 cm, nutwood frame without glass. Part of ExExoArtefakt

Cinnamon / Proxy / Essen, Germany, 2018. C-print, glossy, 20 x 30 cm, nutwood frame with glass. Part of ExExoArtefakt

Keru / Proxy, Aiquile, Cochabamba, Bolivia/ Latin America Collection University of Bonn, Germany, 2018. C-print, glossy, 45 x 30 cm, nutwood frame without glass. Part of
ExExoArtefakt

Chocolate / Proxy / Essen, Germany, 2018. C-print, glossy, 20 x 30 cm, nutwood frame with glass. Part of ExExoArtefakt

Left: Miniature Keru / Proxy, Mizque, Cochabamba, Bolivia / Right: Keru (colonial period) / Proxy (Peru) / Latin America Collection University of Bonn, Germany, 2018. C-print, glossy, 30 x 45 cm, nutwood frame without glass. Part of ExExoArtefakt

Anthropomorphic Vase II / Proxy for Shipibo Culture / Latin America Collection University of Bonn, German, 2018. C-print, glossy, 70 x 105 cm, nutwood frame without glass. Part of
ExExoArtefakt

Avocado / Proxy II / Essen, Germany, 2018. C-print, glossy, 20 x 30 cm, nutwood frame with glass. Part of ExExoArtefakt

Pestel and Mortar / Proxy for K‘iche‘ Culture / Latin America Collection University of Bonn, Germany, 2018. C-print, glossy, 30 x 45 cm, nutwood frame without glass. Part of ExExoArtefakt

Five Cocoa Beakers / Proxies for Maya Culture / Latin America Collection University of Bonn, Germany, 2018. C-print, glossy, 30 x 45 cm, nutwood frame without glass. Part of
ExExoArtefakt

Coffee Beans / Proxies / Essen, Germany, 2018. C-print, glossy, 20 x 30 cm, nutwood frame with glass. Part of ExExoArtefakt

Chicha Jug / Proxy for Chiquitano Culture/ Latin America Collection University of Bonn, Germany, 2018. C-print, glossy, 30 x 45 cm, nutwood frame without glass. Part of
ExExoArtefakt