Whitechapel Gallery presents a new commission from Argentinian Lisbon-based artist Gabriel Chaile (b. 1985, San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina). Archaeology of memory (Arqueología de la memoria) offers audiences a significant opportunity to engage with Chaile’s work, following his shortlisting for the Fourth Plinth (2024) and presentation at Studio Voltaire (2023).

Chaile’s practice is rooted in the distinctive cultural traditions of north-west Argentina. He creates engaging anthropomorphic sculptures, often monumental in scale using adobe (a type of clay made from local organic materials) which reinterpret the formal and material language of the region’s indigenous communities. Acting as both anthropologist and storyteller, Chaile investigates what he terms the ‘genealogy of form’ – the idea that certain forms, motifs or shapes repeat throughout history, taking on a new significance in each changed context. Throughout his work, Chaile features recurring figures and symbols that memorialise and recall a lineage of traditions and practices drawn from his ancestors and community.

For the commission at Whitechapel Gallery, Chaile will create a site-specific installation that engages with the particularly rich and diverse historical and cultural identity of the East End. Continuing his long-standing interest in collecting ceramics and other items from across the globe, Chaile will scavenge and source a range of objects (decorative and functional) from the local area surrounding Whitechapel Gallery, which will then feature in the exhibition. When entering the gallery, visitors will encounter a group of adobe sculptures that act as both containers for, and guardians of, the various local objects Chaile has found. His use of ancient organic forms to display culturally diverse objects offers a particularly intimate way of connecting worlds, peoples and stories, within a configuration that evokes a site of archaeological excavation.

Chaile’s fascination with collecting began with Portuguese ceramics, which he primarily found in street markets, stating: “I was interested in how these objects had a migrant story and, as I started travelling more for work, I began buying other objects that came from one culture but somehow ended up in another place entirely.” This assembly of eclectic pieces formed the genesis of a ‘migrant collection’, comprised of objects, items and stories that foster connection with communities, highlighting both differences and affinities. For Chaile, the movement of objects speaks to the movement of people, and his work reflects on these journeys through his own experience of migration and questions about identity.

Archaeology of memory expands Chaile’s interests and practice, creating a terrain, or environment, sown with different histories and reflecting the many ways of living across diverse geographies. While his work initially appears rooted in materiality, it reveals a rich conceptual framework that offers audiences the means to approach complex issues – as he does – in the manner of an archaeologist.

A fully illustrated publication accompanies the exhibition and will be published in May 2026. It features a commissioned text by Manuela Moscoso, curator and Executive and Artistic Director of the Center for Art, Research and Alliances (CARA) New York, and an interview with the artist.