Potosí

In Spanish, Potosí means incalculable wealth. It's also the name of the legendary mountain that was the richest silver mine in history, and serves as the starting point for Miguel Mesa Posada's first solo exhibition at Casas Riegner, which examines historical narratives through material culture.

Potosí brings together maps, tableware, and votive objects that revolve around questions of wealth and extraction. Mesa Posada creates pieces that seem to belong to a past that never was: objects frozen in an unresolved mestizaje that provoke doubt and estrangement.

The exhibition is organized around three themes. In the first, the tradition of printed documents collides with the idea of knowledge transmission through weaving, central to Andean culture. Using a technique he also calls Potosí, Mesa Posada merges, cuts into, and peels away facsimiles of maps combined with cotton threads. On one hand, European documents that acknowledge their limited knowledge—America always as Terra incognita. On the other, maps from the Relaciones geográficas with their distinctly pre-Hispanic conception.

In the second theme, the artist intervenes on tableware from the last century with stamps of his own design that mix pre-Columbian iconography with symbols from European porcelain and ceramic manufacturers. By placing them on the underside of plates, Mesa Posada invites us to examine the reverse side of history. These everyday objects activate a discourse of historical speculation, an alternative that imagines an American tableware tradition.

The third theme explores the encounter between two "civilizations of shine", Europe and America, both fascinated by metallic luster associated with the spiritual and transcendental. Set to a sound composition by Nicolas Leau (France, 1983), it presents breastplates inspired by South American silverwork, ex-votos in the form of sleeves, and a tabernacle as the room's centerpiece. A space of wonder before reflection and abundance that is more woven than metallic, part of a history that is woven together and has yet to be written.