Gabriel Alarcón

Two hands hold a banner with the phrase “We can all see that the colonizer is naked,” referring to the story Emperor’s New Clothes, symbolizing the empty promises of capitalism and the barren landscapes left behind by the world’s insatiable hunger for infinite profit. With his series of retablos—devotional folk altars—Gabriel Alarcón reimagines symbols of colonial power from a contemporary perspective.

Some of his retablos tell the story of teacher protests for better working conditions, others of protest in the Andes region against the state’s decision to grant international mining companies easier access to lithium reserves. The Lithium Triangle, spanning Argentina, Chile, and Bolivia, holds one of the world’s largest lithium deposits. Its continuous extraction not only destroys the Andean ecosystem, but also displaces Indigenous people from the territories sacred to them.

The installation of the retablos in the Hamburger Bahnhof ’s Werkraum forms the constellation of a march itself, mirroring the Malón de la Paz [Peace Raid] in 1946 and 2006: walks by Indigenous communities across the Andes from Jujuy to Buenos Aires to demand the restitution of their ancient lands. These walks were repeated again in 2023 to protest Argentina’s plans to pay its debts by exploiting the region.

In his works, the artist uses symbols of power to mock the nation state as well as to speak about colonial oppression and the violent processes of cultural syncretization, which disregards Indigenous cosmologies and their sacred connection to the land.

Text: Sumesh Sharma