The Portable Universe / El Universo en Tus Manos: Thought and Splendor of Indigenous Colombia

Curated by Diana Magaloni and Julia Burtenshaw

LACMA: May 29 – October 2, 2022

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston: November 6, 2022 – April 16, 2023

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts: June 3 – October 1, 2023

Rietberg Museum in Zurich, Switzerland: March 21 – July 21, 2024

Comprising approximately 400 works, including an unprecedented number of loans from the Museo del Oro in Bogota, this groundbreaking exhibition presents the diversity and materiality of ancient Colombian cultures and reframes how we approach ancient Colombian art. With the European conquest, Indigenous cultures and knowledge, based on millennia of intellectual efforts, were disregarded as crude superstition. The Portable Universe is designed to recapture some of that knowledge and to envelop the works with life and meaning, inviting visitors into a cultural dialogue that spans both space and time. The project also draws heavily on contemporary Indigenous understandings to evoke a worldview in which ancient artworks have relevance for today and the future. The curatorial team has been working in close collaboration with the Arhuaco of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, who are supporting and engaged in the project, part of a long-term initiative in fostering cross-cultural dialogue and knowledge exchange. Their perspective guided every aspect of the project, from the catalogue layout to the exhibition design, interpretative materials and object labels.

The accompanying catalogue, co-edited by Julia Burtenshaw, Diana Magaloni, Maria Alicia Uribe, and Hector Garcia Botero, and published by LACMA/Del Monico Prestel, won the prestigious College Art Association’s Alfred H. Barr Jr. Award for museum scholarship in 2023.

LACMA also launched a behind-the-scenes documentary series called Unpacking the Universe: The Making of an Exhibition, which follows the six-year journey of LACMA’s curators Diana Magaloni and Julia Burtenshaw in researching, developing, and installing The Portable Universe. The series allowed the team to be transparent about how it facilitated a collaborative process with the Arhuaco community in Colombia and experts at different institutions. Among many topics, the
documentary features scenes of breathtaking landscapes and archeological sites; conversations with Mamo Camilo Izquierdo and Jaison Perez Villafaña regarding the Arhuaco worldview and how this relates to the museum, as well as contemporary social and environmental issues; and behindthe-scenes footage of preparing the exhibition, including new initiatives around museum stewardship of Indigenous works.

The series was awarded the Association of Art Museum Curators’ Award for Excellence for Best Digital Program, an Anthem Award in the Education, Art & Culture category, and an honorable mention as an Audience Favorite at the Archaeology Channel International Film Festival in 2023.

Impact

In appreciation for their collaboration on The Portable Universe, LACMA made a grant to the Arhuaco community at Kūtūnsama, and were delighted to learn that Mamo Camilo and other elders decided to use this support for a very special purpose: to build a kankurwa. These are the paired (male and female) meeting houses created specifically for the transmission of sacred knowledge, for training future mamos and leaders, and maintaining culture and balance. This milestone represented the relationship’s reciprocity and demonstrated an impact that goes well beyond intellectual exchange.