Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.

Trade winds were the currents of air that brought Columbus to the Americas in 1492—an event that led to the establishment of trade routes across the Atlantic in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Western history has canonized this era as one of “exploration and discovery,” marked by economic, technological, and cultural “progress.” This narrative, however, neglects the realities of mass displacement, enslavement, and extraction that enabled this time of imperial prosperity. This exhibition interrogates the history and legacy of trade routes by mapping them in relation to the economic and migratory realities of today. Working across media and with an expansive range of materials, including colonial products such as coffee, tea, gunpowder, silver and cotton. The artists in this exhibition expose the structural and material dimensions of coloniality while highlighting the ways it continues to haunt the world today.

participating artists: Tania Bruguera, Rafael Ferrer, Noé Martínez, Ana Mendieta, Dalton Paula, Howardena Pindell, Emilio Rojas, Xaviera Simmons, Juana Valdés, Carrie Mae Weems.
curated by: Cecilia González Godino, Marjorie Susman Curatorial Fellow.