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Eduardo Villacis Smoking Mirror
Ecuadorian artist Eduardo Villacis posits an alternative history following the landing of Columbus on the shores of the Americas. Instead of a European conquest of Aztec culture, Villacis envisions Columbus taken prisoner, his navigational tools examined and used to embark on an adventure to subdue and colonize a new world which will be renamed “Amexica.” This installation is a mock historical museum, complete with artworks, artifacts, and historical fragments of a vanquished people who once called their land “U-rop.” With this ambitious project, Villacis reflects on racism and the manipulation of religious beliefs as ideologies of conquest and as tools of deceit. |
