Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have retreated to our homes and cemented ourselves in a safety zone, unable to seek exchanges that defy the physical boundaries set to protect oneself and others. This exhibition seeks to subvert the traditional means of creating and exhibiting art by retracing the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci’s voyages to the Americas. It will encourage a form of correspondence which occurs by sending an empty parcel to the first artist who, adding or changing its content, will send it on to the next. In accordance with BIENALSUR’s ethos, the Global South will initiate these conversations around visual culture exhibited in Western Europe. With this aim, Vespucci’s routes will be reversed as our parcels will start from South and Central America. Two parcels will follow Vespucci’s first two voyages in reverse order: while the first one will reach artists based in Haiti, Guyana, Spain and Italy, the second one will be sent to Argentina, Brazil and Portugal. 
This artistic postal-experiment is grounded on the Mail Art movement, which emerged as a cost-effective and accessible artform in the late 1960s and connected artists globally. Collaboration sits at the heart of this project, as a form of artistic practice that connects otherwise isolated subjects. Ultimately, this exhibition uses this time in which international travel has been halted to rethink and challenge the historical legacy of ‘exploration’.