Gaspar Miguel de Berrio, New Spain, 1706-1762
Harun Farocki, German, 1944-2014
Description of Cerro Rico, 1758 / The Silver and the Cross, 2010
The first photo, entitled Description of Cerro Rico and the Imperial Town of Potosí, was painted in 1758 by Gaspar Miguel de Berrío. It depicts the town of Potosí in Bolivia during the era of Spanish Colonialism, specifically showing the dangerous and exploitative silver mining and refining industry. Indigenous workers labored in dangerous conditions in the mines, which were so greatly depleted they were dug to perilous depths. The refining process involved workers wading through a mixture of chemicals that included mercury. This mercury still lingers in the atmosphere of Potosí harming residents. The other photos are stills from a video installation work by Harun Farocki in 2010. In this video Farocki juxtaposes sections of Berrío’s painting to current day images of Potosí so that the viewer sees the connections between this history and the current day landscape. He questions aspects of Berrío’s painting, which leaves out some of the horrors of the mines in order to present a bustling silver industry. Farocki is also highlighting that Spanish colonialists used the cross to sanction their actions; a narrator in the video states “The Spaniards brought the cross and took away the silver. In doing so, they almost exterminated the Indigenous population.” Label by Savannah Singleton