Exploradores, soñadores y ladrones

Explorers, dreamers and thieves is an adventure through memory and archives. This book is a new exercise in invention based on the meeting of the complex history of Europe and America. After the success of Retelling, the curatorial team at the British Museum and the Hay Festival came together again to encourage different authors to be inspired by the museum's objects. This time, the proposal is a little different. The creators were invited to review a series of ethnographic documents: a profusion of diaries, letters, sketches, reflections and transactions, all referring to the process of acquiring works. Starting from these materials, the premise was to imagine own narratives that had as protagonists those who managed to get these pieces to the museum space. The process produced an amazing result. As always, the writers' imagination reached unexpected places. Any reader will find, in this polyphony, an enriching and provocative game. The path through these stories is similar to the one undertaken, some centuries ago, by the explorers, dreamers and thieves who inspire this volume.