UNSETTLED LANDSCAPES BOOK

Just a few miles south of Santa Fe, the Pan-American Highway passes through New Mexico. From this stretch of highway, we are connected through a network of roads north to Alaska and south to Tierra del Fuego. Linking the mainland continents of the Americas over its 30,000-mile length, the Pan-American Highway is a sign of the connectivity and shared concerns of the Americas. At the same time, it is a provocative symbol of the larger ambitions of Pan-Americanism and the economic expansionism that still defines the United States' relationship to the southern half of the Western Hemisphere. It is around fraught and complex notions of shared experiences, histories, and land that SITE Santa Fe's new biennial begins with a series called S/TElines: New Perspectives on Art of the Americas.

With Unsettled Landscapes, the first show in our S/TElines series, we launch a new biennial dedicated to the Western Hemisphere. This redefined trajectory was nearly four years in the making, and represents not only the collective vision of four curators and five satellite curatorial advisors, but also the insight of a remarkable group of colleagues from all over the globe who participated in pivotal initial conversations about the viability and potential of an Americas biennial in Santa Fe.

Our S/TElines advisors, including Ana Paula Cohen (Brazil), Luis Croquer (El Salvador | USA), Douglas Fogle (USA), Rosa Martínez (Spain), Gerald McMaster (Canada | USA), Ryan Rice (Canada | USA), and Osvaldo Sánchez (Cuba | Mexico), contributed enormously to shaping a bold new way for us to conceive, curate, organize, and present a new biennial at SITE. Among those at the table during these vital and formative discussions were the curators who would join me on our first S/TElines curatorial team: Janet Dees, Candice Hopkins, and Lucía Sanromán. I am immensely grateful to Janet, my curatorial colleague at SITE, for her many contributions to every aspect of this project, and for her dedication and attention to every detail along the way. To Candice and Lucía, I wish to express the gratitude and admiration of everyone at SITE Santa Fe. Not only did our co-curators help shape a deeply thoughtful and rigorous exhibition for the launch of S/TElines, but they were also fundamentally important to the restructuring of our approach to biennial-making at SITE. Candice's and Lucía's contribution to our future has been significant, and, on behalf of all members of the Board and staff at SITE Santa Fe, we thank them for their passion, collegiality, and vision.

We welcome you to Unsettled Landscapes.