cleonora:

Oscar Santillán

Cuerpo de Agua, 2018

A stranger’s left footstep gathered on one side of the Pacific Ocean, and a
stranger’s right footstep gathered on the opposite side of the same ocean.
Unique piece

This work stems from Santillán’s interest in Trans-oceanic contact theories
– the suggestion that navigation across the Pacific Ocean enabled contact
between early populations of the American continent with Asia. More
specifically, in the 1960’s, archeologists Emilio Estrada and Betty Meggers
elaborated on this possibility after conducting comparative studies between
the cultures of Jomon (current Japan) and Valdivia (current Ecuador).

Cuerpo de Agua is the artist’s attempt to gather physical evidence meant
to demonstrate that a human being with one foot on each side of the ocean
actually exists.