“BETWEEN COCA AND GOLD” AT THE 2025 NEW YORK TRIENNIAL
Tatiana Arocha's artistic approach examines the connections between nature, history, and cultural resilience, presented alongside a collaborative publication blending critical thought and visual research.
Colombian artist Tatiana Arocha has been invited to participate in the 2025 New York Latin American Art Triennial, a major event that brings together creators from across the region to engage in critical dialogue on identity, territory, and memory. Her contribution will take the form of the installation Entre la Coca y el Oro (Between Coca and Gold), which will be presented at the Newhouse Center in Snug Harbor, Staten Island.
The work reflects on the historical and contemporary tensions surrounding coca leaves and gold—two elements deeply rooted in Andean cosmovision, yet entangled in processes of extractivism, violence, and stigmatization. Through a poetic and critical visual language, Arocha revisits these symbols from their ancestral dimension, questioning colonial narratives and the imaginaries that have criminalized cultural practices associated with coca.
Alongside the exhibition, Arocha will launch the book Decocanizing Coca, a collective research project developed in collaboration with other women scholars. The publication documents the artist’s creative process, her body of work, and the critical thinking she has developed around coca as a sacred plant, its alternative uses, and its role in the history and culture of Indigenous communities. The book not only offers an artistic perspective but also opens space for historical, social, and political analysis aimed at dismantling prejudices and reclaiming the cultural and spiritual value of coca.
Through this dual proposal—installation and book—Tatiana Arocha reaffirms her commitment to an artistic practice that bridges art, research, and activism. Her participation in the 2025 New York Latin American Art Triennial expands the international reach of her work while contributing to an urgent debate on the decolonization of knowledge and the preservation of ancestral wisdom.
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