At the beginning of the 17th Century, Potosí was one of the largest cities in the world. During the Spanish colonial rule, enormous quantities of silver were shipped from Potosí to Europe, thus giving the early capitalist system a tremendous push, and initiating the start of the modern era. During the Counter-Reformation, this dynamic triggered a mass production of images, not only in Spain, but also in the Viceroyalty of Peru. The exhibition traces the circulation of money and art, which developed during that period. A selection of images from the “Andean Baroque” enters into dialogue with contemporary works of art: whether it is the migrant workers in China who made the economic miracle there possible, or the economic power Dubai, which seeks to reinvent itself as an art metropolis. The tour of the exhibition projects a kaleidoscope of a globalized society in which the principle of exploitation is still as prevalent as it was in the early days of modernity.
