Felipe Arturo

Trópico Entrópico (Entropic Tropics)

Defined as entropy, the second law of thermodynamics proposes that energy is more easily dispersed than it is concentrated. One basic illustration of entropy is to imagine white and black sand: once mixed together, it is highly unlikely that the contrasting grains of sand can be separated and restored to their original distinct color groups. Felipe Arturo’s Trópico Entrópico (Entropic Tropics) considers the colonization of the American continent as a similarly irreversible process of cultural entropy. His inspiration derives from a place near Manaus in the Brazilian Amazon, where the Black River meets with the sandy-colored Solimões River, producing a river of two colors that extends over ten kilometers. In the late nineteenth century, the Brazilian rubber barons decided to commemorate this impressive natural phenomenon by covering the main square of Manaus with a design of black-and-white waveforms made from stones. The square is known as the Encontro das aguas (Meeting of the Waters). Decades later, Roberto Burle Marx used this same pattern in his famous Copacabana walkway in Rio de Janeiro. Since then, the design has spread across the continent to Lima, Bogotá, Cali, and beyond. Trópico Entrópico uses this pattern to produce entropy in the exhibition space. Sugar, the material used, signifies one of many economic motivations for colonialism. Visitors are invited to collectively dissolve this modern design by walking on the brown and white sugar, and participating in its entropic mixing.