Unconquered Natures – Tropicalism

Camilla Ospina Gaitán’s new commission examines the logic of colonialism through the lens of orchid collection—an 18th- and 19th-century practice in which collectors from the global north were sent to the West Indies, South America, the Indian Peninsula, and Southeast Asia- to plunder the most exotic and coveted specimens of these delicate flowers.In this installation, Gaitán transforms the space into a nursery of rare specimens, uprooted from their native soil. These moving sculptures intertwine history, fiction, and science to reflect on the enduring repercussions of colonial resource extraction in her native Colombia.