Interplanetary Simulations

Embarking on a journey to imagine possible worlds requires approaching territory in an exploratory manner, blurring and summoning the boundaries between the terrestrial and the cosmic, the natural and the manufactured. It means leaving Earth behind for a moment, glimpsing the endless abyss of impending ends of the world, reshaping imaginaries, and returning to reconfigure something—anything.

In the vicinity of the salt flats of the Sonoran Desert, at El Pinacate and Gran Desierto de Altar—where the land transforms into crystalline horizons and the sand reminds us that this was once a sea—Interplanetary Simulations took place: a research residency aimed at creating cracks between artistic and scientific practices. This initiative invoked intersections with disciplines such as planetary geology, astronomy, and astronautics, as well as the ancestral knowledge of the Tohono O’odham people.

This exhibition is the outcome of an artistic residency during which five Latin American artists spent a month immersed in the vibrant geography and exoplanetary landscapes of the Sonoran Desert—composed of star-shaped dunes, salt flats, and volcanic craters. Collaborating with other guest artists, they explore fundamental themes, such as imagining life beyond Earth, speculating on possible futures, questioning the narratives of interplanetary colonization, and reflecting, through each piece, on our relationship with the environment and its infinite possibilities.

Some works reference visions of ecosystems created to sustain extraterrestrial life, while others unearth traces of humanity in landscapes that might belong to Mars, Venus, Jupiter, or any other planet. These provocations invite us to ask: what does it mean to carry our humanity to other worlds? How can we avoid repeating the mistakes of our extractivist dynamics here on Earth? Imagining the cosmos also means imagining how to remain on this planet without depleting it.

The desert now serves as a mirror, revealing our planet's distant past while simultaneously forecasting scenarios of imaginary futures. The salt, which holds the memory of water, becomes a symbolic element linking the human with the cosmic, the finite with the infinite, the individual with the collective.

Interplanetary Simulations invites us to explore territories that feel as distant as they are familiar, reevaluating the relationships between the micro and the macro to conceive ways of life that emerge when humanity ceases to oppose the universe and its complexity.

Resident Artists: Elisa Balmaceda, Luis Williams-Fallas, Nahuel Sanchez Tolosa, and Rastros de Diógenes

Guest Artists: Ale de la Puente, Berenice Olmedo, Invasorix, Rocío Montoya, Romeo Gómez López, Simón Vega, and Victor Pérez Rul