Chimboraza
collage | 40 x 30 cm

The expedition of Alexander von Humboldt to South America (1799 – 1804) is considered to be one of the most significant research expeditions of modern times, showing its traces not only in current debates on the colonial heritage of Europe, but also in a diverse debate about Humboldt‘s person in Latin America itself. Following the ideas of the Enlightenment, Humboldt‘s journey created an unknown awareness for America and he tried to create a differentiated and open view on foreign cultures. But Humboldt's adventures of gathering knowledge, surveying and mapping territories, were also used as an instrument of colonial domination.

This inherent ambivalence of scientific expeditions is the starting point for my long-term research project „Unfinished histories“. More than 200 years after Humboldt, I started retraveling South America on the exact same route, visited the same places and reworked, corrected and amended his observations from a contemporary perspective. This project on Europe‘s colonial heritage is accompanied by various dialogues and collaborations with Latin American artists and scientists, searching for a joint analysis of postcolonial perspectives.

Volcán Cayambe | collage | 60 x  30 cm

Besides texts, objects and measurements Alexander von Humboldt featured maps and graphic images as a principal mode of describing and portraying Latin America. He created a famous series of color plates depicting natural and cultural micro-environments. These images are science and art at the same time - hybrids that combine visual layers with collected data and complex information about very specific locations, about the landscape, the indigenous inhabitants and their culture. The locations shown served as a starting point for a series of collages, combining the graphics from Humboldt’s book “Views of the Cordilleras and Monuments of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas” with my photographs from the exact same places in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

Salto del Tequendama | collage | 27 x 20 cm

Mud volcanoes of Turbaco | collage | 30 x 21 cm

Ruins of Ingapirca | collage | 30 x 21 cm

Quindío Passage | collage | 48 x 28 cm

The Institute is an animated documentary about the importance of biodiversity for the cultural identity and the economic independence of Latin America. It is based on a conversation with the leading biodiversity expert and transgender activist Brigitte Baptiste. She is the former head of "Instituto Humboldt” in Bogota, the world's first institute for biodiversity research. The film shows the connections between the historical research expeditions of Humboldt, Mutis and Caldas in South America with genetic research and contemporary biology in today’s Colombia. The long-awaited peace in the country has not only opened up unreachable territories for research, but also sparked a debate about how to deal with the country's biological heritage.

Mompox is a small town on the banks of Magdalena river. It was founded by Spanish settlers in 1540 and it was here, in 1810 where Colombia’s independence from Spain was declared. At this time, it was a wealthy key trading town linking Colombia’s coast with Bogota and the Andean region, but soon after that, erosion and sedimentation changed the course of the Magdalena River. The commercial and social life of the colonial town diminished, and its inhabitants emigrated to other regions. The crumbling town became an island enclosed by river arms and almost frozen in time. The video Standstill portrays this special place through focused observation of one object – an omnipresent rocking chair in colonial design.

Standstill
excerpt
video | full-HD | 8 min

In Popayan I met with Olga Lucia Sanabria-Diago, who gave me an inspiring insight into the field of ethnobotany and the ecological, social and cultural dimensions of the plants in the Andean area. Several native plants are sacred to the indigenous people, and thereby it is prohibited to collect or even to photograph these plants. In scientifically studying these plantas sagradas other media, like drawings or paintings obtain a significant role.

CIAT, which stands for Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical, is a research center dedicated to preserve the world’s biodiversity and food safety. It is based in Palmira (Colombia) and preserves the world’s largest and most diverse collection of beans, most of them originating from Latin America. This huge variety of seeds is catalogued, conserved and made available for distribution by CIAT’s large Genebank. This biodiversity repository assists breeders and researchers and also directly provides seeds to farmers. As guardians of agrobiodiversity they work on safekeeping the primary sources.
During my research trip throughout the country I met with Peter Wenzl, who is leading CIAT’s Genetic Resources Program and Genebank Scientist Monica Carvajal showed me around the wonderful campus and patiently explained all the processes. I also learned about the importance of wild relatives as a valuable source for genetic diversity.

Monument portrays the spontaneity and transience of a rap battle taking place in the Ecuadorian capital Quito. Starting point is the statue of the Alexander von Humboldt in Parque El Ejido, which serves as a stage for freestyle battles every Friday. The improvised text, which is largely shaped by slang, was transcribed and rhythmized for the video and accompanies it as an oversized subtitle. The actors‘ actually fleeting words thus become a monument to Latin American youth culture and take over the existing historical monument.

Fog catcher
atrapanieblas

watercolor drawings
28 x 18 cm

Almost the entire Pacific coast of Peru is characterized by extreme drought and because many people here don't have access to clean water, they try to produce water from the existing fog with the help of so-called Atrapanieblas (fog catchers). In the mountain regions along the coast and in the hills around Lima, various constructions are used to stretch fine-meshed nets on which the mist condenses, and it is finally collected as water in containers. With the support of the NGO Peruanos sin agua, I visited some of the facilities and with the water extracted from the fog I created a series of watercolor drawings that represent these fog catchers.

Bridge of Penipe from Humboldt's “Views of the Cordilleras and Monuments of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas”

In June 1802, Alexander von Humboldt crossed the river Chambo in Ecuador, by a rope bridge, called the Bridge of Penipe. Later he described and depicted that bridge in his book “Views of the Cordilleras and Monuments of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas”. More than 200 years later, we tried to revisit that place, but as so often during this trip, instead of finding the bridge we had an interesting conversion with the residents of the village Penipe, based on Humboldt's drawing. Here is a small spanish excerpt.

So far, I followed Humboldt’s route approx. 6000 km across South America, from the Caribbean coast of Cartagena in Colombia, along the Rio Magdalena, via Bogota and Cali, across the Andes to the Ecuadorian capital Quito. From there I continued south along "The Avenue of the Volcanoes", crossed the border to Peru at La Balsa, where I traveled on via Jaen and then to the coast to Trujillo. From there I followed the coast to the Peruvian capital Lima. The entire route was shaped by a variety of means of transport, buses, taxis, collectivos, boats, moto taxis and many paths on foot. And music was a constant companion. This video is dedicated to the many drivers and their individual sounds.

In Transit

excerpt
video | Full-HD | 18 min

Botanical
Identity

Abrus precatorius | Wallpaper design of toxic precatory beans that are often used for traditional jewelry

Seed wallpaper designs

Searching for El Totumo | video | 4min

Rio Guayaquil | collage | 44 x 28 cm