Our exhibition presents viewers with a combination of historical methods and visual and spatial analysis, using maps, drawings, and photographs to trace the spatial history of contamination in Costa Rica’s banana-producing regions. Thinking of contamination as a material and historical reality, Contaminated Forms proposes that toxicity is ingrained in the spatial composition of these regions, simultaneously interlinked with capitalist production logics and intertwined with histories of environmental devastation, disease propagation, abandonment, and reoccupation.

Within this framework, the organization of the archive lets us think of “productive” as a condition that binds distinct geographies through harm by provoking ecological devastation and social tensions, and as a synonym of contamination. Forms encourages visitors to rethink the legacies of contamination and explore new possibilities for reclaiming and reimagining banana-producing regions.