A black-and-white map of North and South America hanging in the Minneapolis Institute of Art has no borders or cities. Instead, it is filled with the names of tribes of Indigenous people who occupied these lands long before European colonizers arrived.
"It is a way of kind of claiming the territory again for its Indigenous peoples and to say that they are alive, they exist among us today," said Valéria Piccoli, chair of the Arts of the Americas and curator of Latin American Art.
This reimagined borderless map, "Pueblos originarios del continente" ("Original peoples of the continent") by Mexico-born artists Carla Fernández and Pedro Reyes, sets the stage for "ReVisión: Art in the Americas," an exhibition that opened Saturday. The show uses a mix of ancient and contemporary works to consider the changing continents, effects of colonialism, environmental impacts and continually shifting cultural identities of the Americas today.
Nearly 130 artworks in the show come from the Denver Art Museum, but Piccoli, who became Mia's inaugural curator of Latin American art in November, added an additional 37 works from the museum's permanent collection. Some of those gems include Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado's documentary-style photographs of a gold rush in the village of Serra Pelada, where nearly 100,000 people mined from 1979 to 1986.
The show labels are in Spanish and English, and the galleries are each painted in different vibrant colors. Meandering through the exhibit feels like making discoveries while exploring a maze. The show is organized into broader themes around land, resources and cultural identity, and there are so many gems it is easy to get lost in the splendor.
'ReVisión' beginnings
When Piccoli arrived in Minneapolis from Brazil, where she had lived and worked her whole life, she noticed that the museum's Latin American collection felt "very disconnected." As Mia's first dedicated curator in this area, she'll be putting the pieces together, creating a connected narrative.
The "ReVisión" exhibition borrows work mostly from the Denver Art Museum, which has one of the country's most robust Latin American art collections, but there is also at least one piece from the Pérez Art Museum Miami.
One exhibition room, filled with silver and gold objects, combines the historical riches of the region with contemporary artists' fresh approaches. On one side, there's a gold crown with dangling tags made around 1000 A.D. by an unknown Lambayeque artist from the north coast of Peru.
Across the room, Guatemalan artist Darío Escobar's silver and tin embossed skateboard, "Untitled (Sin Título)," on loan from the Pérez Art Museum Miami, is covered in decorations referencing religious artifacts and Guatemala's colonial past.
The ancient Inca tradition of khipu (quipu), a system of knotted and color-coded cords used to keep records, is shown in the past and present — through an original khipu and a contemporary artist's approach.
This was prohibited by the Spanish crown during colonial times, but even then the tradition continued," Piccoli said.
In Ecuador-born artist Ronny Quevedo's "los desaparecidos (the arbiter of time)," he uses khipu to track 45-minute segments of a soccer game; his father was a professional soccer player. The title also references people who have been disappeared by Latin American governments, imprisoned, tortured or killed.
While contemporary artists' approach to history figures largely in the show, there are also a number of pieces directly from colonial times. Spanish painter Francisco Clapera's set of "casta" paintings, circa 1775, offer portrayals of mixed-race families in colonial-era Mexico, where he lived at the time.
"It is very rare for us to have a whole series of 16 paintings, and you can see that every one of them are based on the representation of a family or a couple and a child that speaks about every possible mixing between Indigenous people, Europeans and Africans," Piccoli said. "And of course, it's very clear that there is a moral judgment about mixing races."
Ultimately, the exhibition ends at the entrance where it began, a circular journey of re-examining the past, present and future — because there is always more time for revision.
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'ReVisión: Art in the Americas'
When: Ends Sept. 17.
Where: Minneapolis Institute of Art, 2400 3rd Av. S.
Cost: $16-20, free for members and ages 17 and under.
Info: new.artsmia.org or 612-870-3000.
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Valéria Piccoli
Piccoli arrived in Minneapolis from Brazil at the end of 2022, ready to step into her new position as the first Ken and Linda Cutler Chair of the Arts of the Americas and Curator of Latin American Art at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. "It's a whole new world to discover," she said. "This exhibition really gave me the opportunity to go into storage and know the collection better." Born and raised in Brazil, Piccoli holds master's and doctorate degrees in art history from the University of São Paulo and was previously chief curator at the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo. At Mia, she has the chance to reimagine the collection and Mia's partnership with local Latino organizations. "I think my first approach to the collection was to talk with colleagues and see how the Latin American collection can fill the gap that exists in the collection of U.S. art at this moment."
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5 Artworks to See
Clarissa Tossin, "Encontro das Águas," (Meeting of Waters)
The Brazilian artist creates a woven tapestry referencing the enormous Amazon River and the impacts of consumerism.
Eduardo Sarabia's "Ceiba Sagrada" (Sacred Tree)
An installation of colorful birds speaks to deforestation that has endangered the once plentiful green-feathered quetzal.
Chiachio & Giannone, "Calaverita"
The hand embroidery speaks to ongoing issues of queer visibility in Argentina, even though gay marriage is legal.
Tenoned serpent heads (espigas de cabezas de serpiente), 700-1000 A.D.
These ancient volcanic stones were placed at the foot of Mesoamerican pyramids, birthplace of the sun god.
Rafael Fajardo's "Crosser/La Migra"
In this old school Nintendo video game, set at the U.S.-Mexico border, players can be either the person crossing or border patrol, with dire consequences either way.
