Heuristic Ecologies // El Misterio de La Millonaria, 2023
PROXYCO presents Heuristic Ecologies, featuring the work of artists Diana Sofia Lozano (b.1992, Cali, Colombia) and Françoise Bagot (b.1940, Cabris, France). Heuristic Ecologies is curated by Paulina Ascencio Fuentes.
Inspired by nature’s mechanisms of adaptability and survival, Lozano’s flora has mutated into complex organisms that overcome extinction by becoming antic hybrids. In particular, the specimens installed in the first space of the gallery are inspired by Boliviana Negra (also known as “La Millonaria”), an enhanced, hard-to-destroy mutant species of coca resisting forms of chemical annihilation by U.S. military forces in South America. Lozano’s creatures camouflage by appealing to geospatial mapping patterns created by detection and surveillance technologies utilized by U.S. intervention projects. These patterns cover several surfaces of the works, functioning as a form of mimicry that would allow them to be indetectable to their predators.
