Atopia. Migration, Heritage and Placelesness

Place: Centro Cultural Metropolitano, Quito

Date: 10.08.2017-29.09.2017

Artists: Allora & Calzadilla, Jonathas de Andrade, Taysir Batniji, John Bock, Monica Bonvicini, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Mario García Torres, Carl Michael Von Hausswolf and Thomas Nordanstad, Mathilde Ter Heijne, Sanja Iveković, Brad Kahlhamer, Los Carpinteros, Rivane Neuenschwander, Walid Radd/The Atlas Group, Alex Rodríguez, Paul Rosero and Do Ho Suh. 

Atopia. Migration, Heritage and Placelessness is an exhibition developed by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna, drawing from the foundation’s collection of contemporary art. It proposes the use of the concept of the “atopic” to challenge the orthodoxy of space and site and to freshly engage with a discoursive body of research that has long been determined by the notions of center/ off-center/ the local/ marginal/ the periphery–between what James Clifford calls localism and worldliness.

Atopia was initially developed in cooperation with Viviana Kuri Haddad for the Museo de Arte de Zapopan, Guadalajara, Mexico (May 14 - October 5, 2014); traveling to the Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá (March 2 - May 29, 2016), Atopia was adapted in collaboration with Andrea Wild, exhibition coordination, and Valentina Gutierrez Turbay as co-curator. Later it was adapted to the Centro Cultural Metropolitano of Quito, Ecuador (August 10-September 29, 2017), by Valentina Gutiérrez Turbay as co-curator.