About
Incessant is a digital exhibition that tells stories of four objects from Colombia and Brazil. Those objects are witnesses to situations of injustice, inequality and conflict, faced by the communities that use and transform them. Several problematics are shown through these objects, such as mega-mining projects that impact the environment; the exploitation and non-recognition of indigenous and peasants’ territories; the constant threat to traditional knowledge; etc. This exhibition states that objects have an agency and a social life, shown through their cultural biographies, which are built from the review of secondary sources and, in some cases, from interviews conducted to those who use them. Incessant asks about the role of these objects, seeing how material culture can speak of the contexts in which it was created, used and transformed. This is an exploratory project on how understanding objects as agents implies not only finding new ways to exhibit them, but also to listen and understand them as witnesses and modifiers of our social realities.
Incessant has a physical exhibition in the Department of Anthropology at Purdue University and it is the result of the work carried out during the Undergraduate Research Experience Purdue-Colombia 2019-II (UREP-C). It is also the final work to opt the degree as an Anthropologist at Universidad Nacional de Colombia.
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I thank to Juan Diego Velásquez, coordinator of the UREP-C program and his team; to Universidad Nacional de Colombia and to Purdue University for providing the funding for this stay. To professors Laura Zanotti and H. Kory Cooper of the Purdue Department of Anthropology and Carlos Guillermo Páramo of the Department of Anthropology at Universidad Nacional de Colombia, who were my advisors during this process. I also thank to the Purdue Writing Lab, who helped me in the revision of the texts. To Trevor Burrows for his help in the construction of the website. To Pat-i Kayapó and Joaquin Prince for telling me stories about their objects and to my family and my friends for always being a support.
As a scholar at a land-grant institution, I have a responsibility to acknowledge the historical context in which it exists. Purdue University resides on and near the lands of the Ojibwe, Delaware, Kickapoo, Miami, Ottawa, Potawatomi, Shawnee, Wea, Wyandot, Winnebago, Fox, Sac, Creek and Menominee Tribal Nations, amongst other Peoples. The area was also a site of trade, gathering and healing for several Native Peoples.
