This project focuses on the discovery of the Spanish galleon San José and the controversy surrounding the famous treasure it carried, a conflict involving the governments of Spain and Colombia and the American company Sea Search Armada, which claimed to have located the ill-fated vessel on the ocean floor. The different pieces allude to the shipwreck itself, the place where it went down, and the image of the Caribbean as one of the most coveted tourist destinations. The attempt to refloat the galleon after three hundred years heightened postcolonial tensions, bathed by the same waters where the hospitality industry practises its present-day exploitation of exotic appeal. The ties between colonialism and tourism are palpable on these shores, where old Spanish fortresses have become backdrops for visitor selfies.

The interplay of materials salvaged from a possible shipwreck composes a kind of naval museum in which a cannonball is made of pottery, a handful of coins from the three countries in conflict adopts the shape of a fist, and a glass ingot contains the waters that surround it, all amid coordinates and maps that indicate watery borders and fingers that point to the Rosario Islands, where the galleon’s remains lie.

This project was made possible thanks to the Flora Ars + Natura residency in partnership with AC/E.