1,001,532 CE

Prospect.6: the future is present, the harbinger is home
Curated by Miranda Lash and Ebony G. Patterson
Ford Motor Plant
New Orleans, 2024
Photography: Jonathan Traviesa and Alex Marks

1,001,532 CE reimagines the tragic Battle of Cajamarca (1532) a million years into the future in a post-human world. The Conquest of the Inca empire is one of the most consequential episodes in history: it accounts for one of the largest and most dramatic original accumulation processes, one that not only enabled European imperialism and global capitalism, but kickstarted Modernity as a totalizing project. In an illuminating case of mistranslation, when Chinese premier Zhou Enlai was asked in 1972 about what was in his opinion the French revolution´s impact in world history, he famously said that it was "too early to say" (he was actually referring to the May 1968 protests). We too argue that it is too early to say what kind of an impact the Conquest of Peru had not only in human history but in deep time. 1,001,532 CE is an attempt to collapse these time scales by suggesting that the ripple effects of the battle of Cajamarca and the violence it unleashed will be felt through the ages and until the end of times.