WAM (WORLD AGRICULTURE MUSEUM)
2010
WAM (World Agriculture Museum) won the Sharjah Biennial Prize in 2015.
WAM was conceived as a touring exhibition:
It was first assembled in 2010 in an old apartment located in Downtown Cairo and extended along five of its rooms. Hosted by the Townhouse Gallery and funded by the Spanish Embassy in Cairo and Matadero Madrid.
It has been shown at ARNOLFINI, Bristol as part of ‘The Museum Show’ in 2011, occupying Bristol’s old police station.
It was part of Sharjah Biennial 12, occupying five rooms of a derelict warehouse on the Sharjah industrial dock Port Khalid.
It was part of the exhibition ‘Primary Sector’ in the MUSAC Museum of León, Spain, 2016, inhabiting the first floor of Fundación Sierra Pambley.
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WAM (World Agriculture Museum) is a site-specific work that uses the historical trope of the cabinet of curiosities to explore the introduction of biotechnology in farming.
This 200 square-meter art installation recreates the atmosphere and the colonial aesthetics of the old Agricultural Museum of Cairo, to present the contemporary discourses on genetically modified crops and their various derivatives, coupled with the implementation of intellectual property policies on seeds, international trade agreements and their connection with food insecurity.
WAM's narrative revolves around phenomena affecting today’s world agriculture. The main subject throughout which all rooms are connected is the introduction of biotechnology in food production.
The use of genetically modified crops and their various derivatives, coupled with the implementation of intellectual property policies on seeds, give way to issues concerning international trade agreements and their connection with food security - food sovereignty. The presented data come from various countries and were issued over the past six years.
The artwork uses the same visual language as the old Museum, adopting museographic mediums vernacular of that era: wooden graphics, hand-painted panels, models, dioramas, oil paintings and charcoal drawings.
WAM is a temporary space illusion, a sort of museum of the future, where the "truths" of our present reveal their potential obsolescence and the dogmas of our contemporary “agricultural progress”, covered in dust, seem less gullible.
WAM is a parody, a fiction, a stage and a theater. Asunción Molinos combines concepts present in the historical tradition of Art, such as The Obsolete, The True, The Didactic, The Absurd and The Naïf, to establish the functional bases of this sui generis World Agricultural Museum.
The objects are exhibited in deliberate disorder, which conveys an impression of carelessness, but they are following a very clear hierarchy: the mainstream propaganda pro-GMO backed by multinationals and governments occupies prime locations, while the data provided by independent researchers and farmers associations lays on the floor against the walls. Next to those, we can spot empty frames with their content torn apart, dusty chemistry tubes, among other incomplete objects.
All together and orchestrated as a cabinet of curiosities, these create a wide collage that allows us to question the confusing realities of the current agricultural panorama.
The data used to build this narrative are antagonistic, and often contradict one another while always being complementary. Some emanate from the official scientific discourse, some from peasant organizations, others are a blend of folklore, fantasy and propaganda, as well as information created by supra-governmental institutions such as the FAO.
The museum's educational aesthetics refers to the paternalistic teaching methods often used by governments to either communicate with their citizens, or disclose information from them.
On the walls we can see the contours of graphics that have been removed long ago and closed doors. Some of these doors bear signs suggesting what lies behind but remain inaccessible.
The Naïve and the Absurd play a key role in generating doubt. It thus becomes harder to discern the truth from the speculation, to stress the ambiguous status quo in the agricultural sector.
The use of colonial aesthetics in the museum suggests a possible comparison between old and new forms of imperialism on agriculture, while the surrounding decay emphasizes the negligence some nations have towards the primary sector.
