Jorge Otero Pailos, author of the exhibition “Analogue Sites,” currently on display in Park Avenue Mall in New York City, presents “Treaties on De-Fences” in Washington, D.C.

The National Museum of American Diplomacy, in partnership with the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies, is pleased to present Treaties on De-Fences by Jorge Otero-Pailos. In 2017, the U.S. government decommissioned the Eero Saarinen-designed Cold War-era Embassy in Oslo, Norway. This exhibition explores Otero-Pailos’ artistic intervention on this modernist masterpiece, a landmark he helped preserve.

On display are sculptures created by Otero-Pailos using the steel fence that once guarded the embassy, an artifact the artist considered historically significant and that would have otherwise been destined for the scrapyard. It also showcases a book containing 51 limited edition prints, some of which are framed and displayed on the walls. The prints are inspired by the diplomatic treaties signed between the United States and Norway, as are the titles of the sculptures, which are derived from these historical documents.

This exhibition runs concurrently with Analogue Sites, Otero-Pailos’ public art exhibition on Park Avenue in New York City. The installation, on view through October 2024, comprises three of the larger sculptures created out of the fence. They are located on East 53rd, East 66th, and East 67th Streets, near the notable landmarks of the Seagram Building, and the Park Avenue Armory. The Queen Sofía Spanish Institute is a proud sponsor of the exhibition and opening of “Analogue Sites” by Jorge Otero-Pailos in the Park Avenue Mall.

Otero-Pailos conceived these artworks in order to spark a national conversation about the preservation of Cold War U.S. embassies, which were originally designed to encourage goodwill towards the United States through their freely-accessible public spaces. The exhibition comes at a moment when many of these embassies are being decommissioned and sold, and calls for reimagining their future while honoring their original intent.