EL INDIO
2015-20XX
Almacenes El Indio was a historic fabric shop, founded in 1870 in Barcelona. When it closed in 2015, unable to pay the exorbitant rents, several objects from inside it ended up in the rubbish bin. Among them an old account book, which serves as a vehicle for this project.
Ledger Art is a branch of art that refers to the drawings that Native Americans made on ledger sheets on the reservations where they were imprisoned at the end of the 19th century, when the last land they were fighting for was taken away from them.
On a formal level, these drawings are a combination of Ledger Art and textile art, both being a form of speech. In that sense, they also contain a reflection on the relationship between power, language and territory. In 2022 the ledger was sent to Portland/Oregon artist Alex Wiseman to continue the project.
P58-55 / watercolor drawing on El Indio ledger
BECAUSE NIGHT HAS FALLEN AND THE BARBARIANS HAVEN'T COME
AND SOME OF OUR MEN JUST IN FROM THE BORDER SAY
THERE ARE NO BARBARIANS ANY LONGER.
NOW WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO US WITHOUT BARBARIANS?
THOSE PEOPLE WERE A KIND OF SOLUTIONS.
Konstantino Kavafakis 1911
P68-77 / watercolor drawing on El Indio ledger
"When the world is broadly divided simply into North and South,
the World Bank has no barrier to its division of that world into a map
that is as fantastic as it is real. This constantly changing map draws
economic rather than national boundaries, as fluid as the spectacular
dynamics of international capital".
Gayatri Spivak
P68-77 / watercolor drawing on El Indio ledger