Total Destruction of the National Museum of Anthropology

Total Destruction of the National Museum of Anthropology is the culmination of a project begun in 2012 as an exhibition at the contemporary art gallery kurimanzutto by artist Eduardo Abaroa, expanded to include photographs, drawings, discussions, archives, guided visits, and public presentations. Abaroa’s proposal is simple, but controversial: to destroy the museum and all of its contents.

Constructed in the 1960s as a complex didactic tool, the Museum houses many of the incredible pre-Colombian archeological treasures found —or stolen— from indigenous communities. The imaginary destruction of the building and its contents, frequently considered a secular temple for modern Mexico, seems an absurdity until one considers the continued systematic destruction of the environment and marginalized conditions of these indigenous communities which the museum and government claim to celebrate.

Eduardo Abaroa examines aspects of impermanence, history and the socio-political fabric of society through his artistic practice. He reimagines iconic works and powerful cultural symbols, seeking to dismantle notions of monumentality and modernity. Found in the intersection of sculpture, installation and performance, his practice has an immediacy that playfully evades the preciousness associated with the art object. He avoids traditional “fine art” connotations by working with unusual material and inexpensive everyday objects: from port-a-potties, tarp and the rubble of demolished buildings, to junk jewelry, cotton swabs, straws and plastic bottles. Abaroa’s site-specific projects seek to undermine the authority of Mexican cultural institutions along with their official narrative and ultra-nationalistic ideology. By juxtaposing various ideological, aesthetic and cultural traditions, the artist offers an incisive point of view, deeply critical of the economic and social structures that govern our society.