by Bianca Baldi, 2014, 9''
Courtesy of the artist
Growing out of an archival research project initiated in 2012, Zero Latitude installation relates on a pivotal moment in late-nineteenth European and African history by minutely focussing on a particular historical artefact: a custom-made portable explorer’s bed produced by Louis Vuitton, founder of the Parisian luggage goods brand. Orchestrated as a walk-through installation, Zero Latitude’s variously showcases this luxury commodity – equal parts relic, sculptural object, historical cipher and perfomative prop – as a way of addressing a period of colonial adventurism that both prefigured and decisively contributed to the irreversible outcomes of the Berlin Conference of 1884-85.