Thought to have never existed, the Neomylodon is still part of the collection of six museums of natural history.

In 1895 Hermann Eberhard, a German sheep rancher found a strange hide in a cave near his house in Last Hope Sound, in the south of Chile

Two years later Francisco P. Moreno visited Eberhard and was struck by the hide. He asked to be allowed to cut a section of it and take it to the Museum of La Plata, of which he was director.

In 1898, Florentino Ameghino saw the hide in La Plata. He immediately recognised it as a Mylodon hide. However, Mylodons were one-ton, three metre long ground sloths known to have been extinct for ten thousand years. The fresh hide clearly implied that there were live Mylodons roaming Patagonia. Putting two and two together, Ameghino announced to the world the Neomylodon Listai, a live ground sloth hidden in the forests of Patagonia.

The story of the Neomylodon is less a story about science than about the construction of myths as well as of truths. It is also a study of colonialism at work. It clearly displays the ironic truth that barely any findings ended up in the country where they were excavated.

Not the least, Neomylodon Listai Ameghino addresses the cultures of display, as well as the roles of the spectator in science and art. By moving between different ways of seeing and of showing artefacts, the vitrines themselves become witnesses of how authority and “truth” is transferred through the methodologies of display.

Pontus Kyander

Neomylodon Listai Ameghino

A Project by

Axel Straschnoy

Curated by

Pontus Kyander

In collaboration with

The Finnish Museum of Natural History LUOMUS
HIAP
Museum of Evolution
Museo de La Plata
Malmö Museer
Inter Arts Center