Landscapes by Extraction

The scientific community agrees that we are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction. This global crisis stems from a cultural ethos shaped by extractivist thinking, which forms the foundation of the “ cannibalism " (N. Fraser) inherent in capitalist society. That is why it is ethically more just and epistemologically more rigorous to describe our era as ' Capitalocene " rather than " Anthropocene ».

Since their “ discovery "In 1492, the territories of the '" new world "have been subjected, under the sway of European imperial and colonial powers, to a systematic and disproportionate process of dispossession. The forms of life that inhabit these places have undergone an onto-economic reduction that has transformed them into mere ' resources ", thereby legitimizing the expropriation of natural resources, the exploitation of human labor, and the appropriation of cultural expressions. 532 years after this " erasure of the Other " (E. Dussel), scientific data demonstrate the ongoing flow of resources from the Global South to the Global North (J. Hickel).

This curatorial research project proposes a visual archaeology of extractivist thought in order to shed light on the ideological foundations of the current global crisis. Three narratives will structure this investigation:

↘︎ Landscape Through Extraction (21st Century) : explores artistic narratives that examine the environmental degradation caused by extractivism in the region

↘︎ Landscape by Sublimation (16th–18th Centuries) : explores the literary and iconographic narratives that have reduced American ecosystems to mere resources 

↘︎ Landscape by Usurpation (19th–20th Centuries) : explores the photographic narratives that documented the modernization of European states through the extraction of wealth from their colonies