C&AL: Could you speak a bit more about the video you created for Museum Ludwig in Cologne?
PBP: My intention is an anticolonial narrative. I decided to install three panels, a triptych. I found a Mexican mural (title unknown) detailing the history of chocolate by the painter Carlos González. The first part is the indigenous version of cacao, the second after colonization, and the third shows Europe. It’s a very linear narrative, yet it involves Indigenous people. I combined this triptych with performance and material from the Museum of Chocolate in Kilchberg, close to Zurich in Switzerland. There’s an explanatory video about Switzerland’s chocolate tradition. It’s a confrontation between the very white and European history of this resource and our Indigenous version of it.
HERE AND NOW at Museum Ludwig. Anti-colonial Interventions is on view in Cologne, Germany, until 5 February 2023
Paula Baeza Pailamilla develops performances based on her own Mapuche identity, which is the point of origin for her work, questioning herself and her context in their historical, political, and social dimensions. Her textile work has been produced from relational art projects. Since 2016, she has been part of the Mapuche collective, Rangiñtulewfü.
Magnus Elias Rosengarten is a writer and artist who currently lives in Berlin.