Paper short abstract:

Situated at the crossroad between art and anthropology, the exhibition "Destiempo: Dynamogram of Puerto Casado" is the result of a one year collaboration between an anthropologist, a Paraguayan curator, a group of Paraguayan artists, two designers and the inhabitants of Puerto Casado.

Paper long abstract:

Though as a platform for storytelling, "Destiempo: Dynamogram of Puerto Casado" is a constantly transforming exhibition on the history of a company town in Paraguay that is part of a wider anthropological research project on that same history. It is the result of a one year collaboration between a visual anthropologist (me), a Paraguayan curator, a group of Paraguayan artists, two designers and the inhabitants of Puerto Casado. While traveling in between Paraguay, New York, and Venice, its content has slowly adapted itself to the wider context where it was taking place. Inspired by Michael Taussig's well known definition of the mimetic faculty as a way of knowing, one of the aims of the exhibition was to explore the production of knowledge at the crossroad between art and anthropology. In particular, I will discuss in detail how the work of the six artists and the co-curator ended up shaping my own anthropological writing and the research more in general.