Unlearning Taxonomies: Artistic Unveiling Practices

The Anthropocene era seems to be described by starting from the analysis of the effects of human action. The Anthropocene is not ended and thus was determined by an imagination projected onto a possible future. In this sense, we will try to show that when trying to define something, one must focus on the effects of the individual’s activities. Descriptive taxonomy does not provide an understanding of the world, but a universal abstraction of ideological characteristics. The goal of this article is to problematize taxonomies by showing that they can only be useful if they are thought of in a posteriori terms. A coherent taxonomic description must be approached by considering the changing relational status of things in the world. This means being able to rethink taxonomies no longer with a hierarchical and universal model, but from the network of relationships and complexity. Our proposal is not to suggest new categories, but to open them up to the event, understood as the determining quality of a process in constant becoming. Taxonomies must not only be contextualized a posteriori, but also react to an epistemological paradox that seeks to crystallize ever-evolving processes. Cosmologies from anthropology and contemporary art will be used to support this thesis.