Foreign Art, Foreign Land is a photographic project that examines the displacement of cultural artifacts from their countries of origin to foreign museums. In Chapter 1, I created life-size cardboard replicas of pre-Columbian and Egyptian objects and placed them throughout New York City. Photographed in real urban spaces, these replicas were symbolically “liberated” from the museum’s walls, prompting reflection on belonging, ownership, and access.

Chapter 2 extends the project to the countries of origin of pre-Columbian objects. Beginning in Peru and continuing in Mexico and Costa Rica, I re-stage the replicas in their homelands while engaging in conversations with archaeologists, educators, collectors, and community leaders. These perspectives, combined with my own experiences growing up in Costa Rica, shape the central questions of the work: Who decides where these artifacts belong? What is preserved—and what is lost—when heritage is displaced?

While acknowledging the essential role museums play in conserving fragile objects, educating audiences, and sharing cultural heritage across borders, this project explores what preservation alone cannot contain: the symbolic weight of artifacts, the histories of extraction they carry, and the absence they create for the communities from which they came.

Chapter One: New York

Chapter Two: Perú (Coming Soon)