Having reflected on the content of our proposal in more detail, the project has evolved from following the routes of Vespucci to instead considering the itineraries shaped by the networks of colonial western imagery imported to South America.

Elaborating on routes that prints by engravers such as Bolswert, or icons like the Virgin of la Antigua, followed to reach their destination from Europe to the Spanish viceroyalties, this exhibition creates a platform for artists to re-claim past colonial routes of iconographic domination through a collaborative artistic project. It draws on the important heritage of viceregal art whilst challenging the long lasting effect of these imported images on Latin American culture. 

We plan to invite 5 artists to develop their own ‘image route’ in the form of a mail art project. The artworks that emerge will make their way from the artists’ studios in South America to our exhibition space in Europe. The specific geographical routes of the parcels will be decided in collaboration with the artists.

Our selected artists all deal with travel, exploration and colonial legacies in complementary ways. Baraya, in his long term project ‘Herbarium of Artificial Plants’, parodies the empirical objectivity of a botanical naturalist, by attempting to classify every artificial plant he can find. Likewise, Duville undertakes mental voyages as the basis of his drawings, such as the collective artists’ project, ‘Valise’, in which the suitcase of the German painter Rugendas, an associate of the explorer Humboldt, was reimagined. Weeks looks at forms and devices of travel, as well as South American nomadic existence. Similarly, Caycedo researches networks of rivers in her artistic process in order to create environmental historical memories. Finally, Araujo questions how architectural motifs circulate from Europe to South America. 
The artists will reverse the imposed dissemination of imposed western iconography during the viceregal period.