Ross Birrell | Criollo
documenta 14

This artist book accompanies the work and film of the same name Criollo, inspired by a 10,000-mile journey from Buenos Aires to New York (1925–1928), undertaken by Swiss-Argentine rider Aimé Félix Tschiffely on two Argentine criollo horses, Mancha and Gato. The criollo horse is a mixture of Arab and Barbary breeds, the name stemming from ‘creole’ with associations of social and cultural mixing. Tschiffely’s account was published in 1933, the same year Hitler seized power in Germany, implementing a bio-politics of hatred based upon an ideology of racial purity. The artist book contains the documents necessary for the horses journey ie. it’s passport, import documents …