The exhibition *Dispossessions in the Americas*, on view at Wrightwood 659 in Chicago, offers a poignant reflection on the lingering impact of colonial violence. Through the lens of the body, territory, and monumental architecture, this multifaceted and eminently political exhibition redraws the geography of our memories.
A sensitive cartography of displacement
Far from the strict linearity of a history lesson, the exhibition operates through layers, collisions, and echoes. Through more than forty works by artists from diverse backgrounds, the exhibition dissects the insidious impact of colonial domination on the body, the land, and cultural heritage across the American continent.
The curatorial premise is unequivocal: communities of African descent, Indigenous peoples, and Latin Americans, as well as queer and trans identities, are revealed not as passive subjects of a history endured, but as the powerful voices of a challenge to dominant narratives. This stance imbues the exhibition with a sharp political edge, even as the dizzying density of the works on display sometimes tends to smooth over the rough edges of deeply intimate experiences.
The body, the ultimate living archive
The power of this exhibition lies majestically in these works that elevate physicality to a sanctuary of memory. In Seba Calfuqueo’s filmic work, the fluidity of the flesh mirrors that of a river, poetically suggesting that the boundary between identity and landscape rests on nothing more than a fragile convention. Carlos Martiel pushes this logic to the extreme, connecting his own blood to the ocean in an image of striking brutality. Elsewhere, Thomas Locke Hobbs’s lens examines the transformation of South America’s vast expanses and the indelible mark of humanity at the heart of the Amazon.
This reflection on the materiality of life finds a spectacular echo in Regina José Galindo’s work. In her performance *Tierra*, her naked body stands, vulnerable, in the middle of a Guatemalan landscape while an excavator digs away the earth around her. The image transcends mere allegory to embody absolute dispossession, with a visual restraint that borders on the unbearable.
Architectures of Power and Strategies of Erasure
The work pushes the boundaries of the natural landscape to tackle the construction of our symbolic spaces. Joiri Minaya immortalizes deliberately veiled monuments, thus concealing beneath drapery the sculpted figures of oppression and genocide. Behind the elegance of this act of concealment lies a stinging reminder: the erection of public statuary is always part of a meticulous orchestration of forgetting.
In Tidalectic Repair, Deborah Thomas stitches together the fragments of a scattered memory—from Africans freed on Saint Helena to bones unearthed by urbanization, and spiritual traditions exiled to Jamaica. By pointing a finger at the frenzied exploitation of natural resources by private interests, her film stretches the specter of colonial trauma to better highlight its contemporary ramifications.
The indelible imprint of coloniality
Spanning more than half a century of creative work, the exhibition skillfully weaves together photographs, installations, videos, and performances around three conceptual pillars: territory, the body, and heritage. But the true strength of this event lies in its categorical refusal to relegate the colonial matrix to the status of a closed chapter.
Instead, the exhibition presents it as an active force, still very much alive, rooted in landscapes, crystallized in institutions, and inscribed in bodies. A discourse that in no way seeks to flatter the eye, but whose aesthetic radicalism guarantees its profound accuracy.
The exhibition "Dispossessions in the Americas" runs through July 18 at Wrightwood 659 Gallery in Chicago. Given the expected crowds at this major event, advance reservations are strongly recommended.