Art Basel Parcours 2026: José Montealegre, Vivero Enredado (Chimera)

Vivero Enredado (Entangled Greenhouse) consists of a greenhouse populated by copper, bronze, and tin sculptures modeled on 16th-century botanical drawings from Nova Plantarum Animalium et Mineralium Mexicanorum Historia (1628). Originally commissioned by the Spanish crown to catalogue the resources of the Americas and assess their economic value, the study relied heavily on the knowledge of local physicians and three Náhua painters. Despite its significance, the project was ultimately dismissed by the Spanish king as overly complex. By revisiting this source material, Montealegre draws attention to histories of appropriation and knowledge extraction. His metallic plants gradually oxidize over time, appearing as spectral descendants of their historical counterparts—neither fully alive nor entirely inert. Calendars positioned outside the greenhouse suggest an alternative temporality, while the artificial climate within creates subtle ambiguities: real water condenses on artificial glass, and distinctions between living and dead, authentic and fictional, begin to dissolve. The work creates a space where colonial archives, speculative futures, and ecological memory converge. In doing so, it reflects on the history and politics of scientific representation and their continuing impact on the present.