Alice Creischer, Andreas Siekmann: Potosí Principle Archive

With texts by Sonia Abián, Edgar Arandia, Elvira Espejo Ayca, John Barker, Christian v. Borries, Matthijs de Bruijne, George Caffentzis, Roberto Choque Canqui, Cultural Worker Coalition against the Humboldtforum, Anthony Davies, Chto Delat, Ines Doujak, Silvia Federici, Leon Ferrari, Maria Galindo, Isaias Grinolo, Max Jorge Hinderer, Pujan Karambeigi, Gabriela Massuh, Philip Mirowski, Eduardo Molinari, Victor Montoya, Tobias Morawski, Stephan Mörsch, Sergio Raimondi, German Muruchi Poma, Edgar Huracán Ramírez, David Riff, Pedro G. Romero, Mafe Moscoso Rosero, Konstanze Schmitt, Robert Sieland & Laura Vallés Vílchez

The Principio Potosí Archive is a collection of historical and contemporary sources, interviews, essays, poems, manifestos and images. It is intended as a complement and continuation of the exhibition project Principio Potosí, which was shown in 2010 at the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid and the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, and in 2011 at the Museo Nacional de Arte and Museo Nacional de Etnografía y Folklore in La Paz. The term Potosí Principle refers to the persistence of the extractivist logic that began with the conquest of South America until now. The exhibition discussed this through the colonial baroque images and their response by contemporary artists. It became a milestone in the postcolonial questioning of the origin of modernity and the function of art in it. The archive continues this theme. It consists of 36 booklets grouped into four volumes. Its themes are: Extractivism, Labor, Debt, Inquisition, Machine Capitalism, Decolonization Practices, and Artistic Doing.