For the last 15 years, Iván Argote has been investigating and creating interventions on public monuments from his home country of Colombia to his current home in France. Within this query into the nature of public monuments, Argote presents his Turistas series (2012-2013) where he dresses bronze and marble statues of Spanish monarchy and conquistadors with indigenous ponchos traditional to the regions where the monuments are located. By making them look like accidental tourists, Argote presents viewers with an ironic twist given their culpability in the massacre and decimation of indigenous peoples. He reminds us that religious and political conquest throughout the Americas came at the expense of millions of native peoples.
Works from this series are included in the collections of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; The Centre Pompidou, Paris; Saatchi Collection, London.