Arquitectura de las transferencias; La Hybris del punto Cero (Architecture of Transfers; The Hubris of the Zero-Point) is a installation that I conceived in collaboration with seven members of the Decolonial Group Berlin by the philosopher Santiago Castro-Gómez and Ramón Grosfoguel . The work consists of a choreography for seven voices in Spanish and German using texts from La Hybris del Punto Cero: Ciencia, raza e ilustración en la Nueva Granada (1750–1816), a book by the Colombian philosopher Santiago Castro-Gómez that critically analyzes the arrogance of the European Enlightenment in New Granada. Displayed in the exhibition hall were ninety-four portraits of renowned protagonists/personalities that who have played assumed relevant roles for thein decolonial discourse from the past to the present times. as well as there were automatic speakers with the voices of the participants, while a video-day at night, showed a choreography of six voices on a flat screen. The installation was informed by a historical perspective from the “South” on research by non-Western thinkers in relation to the problem of epistemological, theoretical, practical, and aesthetic references. The proposals of the decolonial thinkers are not only dissonant in respect to the aspirations of the hegemonic speeches and representations, but also inquisitive about the power of reason and universalist thinking. For this work I also invited Ramón Grosfoguel to give a speech about “The Historical Formation of the Coloniality of Knowledge and Its Implications for the Modern/Colonial World.”
Ingrid Wildi Merino
Translation from Spanish into English by Yasser Farres