La Tierra Tropezaba Con El Sol.
The Earth Stumbled Upon the Sun.
“El Presente”: Contemporary Works that Reimagine the Present
This last gallery is highly inspired by the work of Donna Haraway and her focus on “sympoietic” thinking, where we can imagine mutli-species thinking and collaboration. Introduced in this room are various international multimedia artists who explore ways in which we can imagine new futures that are focused on ecology and reciprocation. In her 2016 book, Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene, Haraway approaches the concept of interconnectivity to discuss what she terms the "Chthulucene" and the dire state of our current ecological crisis. In her own words, Haraway describes the Chthulucene as referring to the “ongoing, past present future processes and entities of the earth... The Chthulucene is a counter to the arrogance of the Anthropocene and Capitalocene, not a substitute, but a troubling presence and force that has never disappeared, and to with which we are at stake.” It’s through the characterization and acceptance of the Chthulucene that Haraway makes an appeal to the importance of “staying with the trouble” as the only inevitable reaction. Staying with the Trouble is also where Haraway most prominently brings art into the entanglement of biology and activism, in what Haraway refers to as “art science worldings.” The resulting text is one that affirms science and creativity as one in the same web of intrigue and possibility, which offers exciting opportunities for artists to explore and engage
Accompanying Music
Furthermore, audiences are invited to listen to a compilation of music from Latin American artists created over the decades in response to ecological degradation due to colonization and capitalism. As all of the tracks are from the last twenty years, it is recommended that audiences listen to the tracks as they browse the third gallery titled “El Presente”
Café Tacuba: “Trópico de Cancer” (Tropic of Cancer)
The song is about a Mexican engineer who questions the threat to the environment by unbridled development while rejecting the notion of that modern civilizations are equated with superiority and the so-called savageness of indigenous culture. The use of the term “Tropic of Cancer” is used to indicate how the mining for fossil fuels have become locations for disease both literally and metaphorically.
Caifanes: “Aquí No Es Así”
(It is not like that, here)
The song speaks of the clash of European and Mesoamerican cultures during the Conquest. The artist narrates of how indigenous ideologies of sacred landscapes and rituals were dismissed and destroyed. While colonizers, who come from lands of neither sun nor sacrifice could not understand the worship for the natural environment.
Porter: “Cuxillo”
(Cuchillo=Knife)
Porter’s catchy tune poetically narrates environmental and human disaster caused by colonization. Their lyrics focus primarily on how the natural world contains the history of the past and present indicating how the environment has changed also from European contact. The change from “ch” to “x” in the title of the song functions symbolically for the Aztec capital as the location of the axis mundi.
Café Tacuba: La Locomotora
(The Locomotive)
The song brings to attention man’s presumed central role as owner and controller of the planet. The lyrics question what humanity’s role would be if the nonhuman could communicate with us at “our level”. “If apes could sing... if trees could weep… or the desert could compose verses… what would happen to me?