Opening: Thursday, September 25th, 7.30 p.m How can we anticipate the future? Without health, it is almost impossible to envisage it. The need to be healthy and to enjoy the full potential of our bodies and minds has always been fundamental to humanity. In many cultures, especially in the Andean region, the capacity to be healthy has been passed down as local wisdom. The diverse forms of health-related knowledge that first emerged from native plants and their uses eventually evolved into what science calls pharmaceuticals, establishing in parallel the knowledge and vision of Nature, its benefits and dangers. In this exhibition, we aim to revisit the memory of two Andean medicinal plants: quina (cinchona) and coca. Learning about their properties and fate may determine the fate of the region itself. The curatorial project is presented in two different venues, unfolding in a dual and collaborative manner: a museographic intervention at the Franciscan Library and an exhibition at the Cabildo de Tarija. Through the exhibition entitled Knowledge and Borders, the artists prompt reflection on the cinchona plant and its classification within the theoretical context of the Chiriguano frontier. The Franciscan mission was the neuralgic point of this border where healing knowledge was compiled, archived and managed. The order’s infirmary served as a laboratory where all knowledge about medicinal plants was consolidated and later disseminated worldwide as healing protocols.
Image: Santiago Contreras Soux, Contra Cartografías, 2022-24