Archivos de la mina planetaria

Abstract

This essay departs from the artistic work on Chile’s and Venezuela’s mineral extractive zones by Ana Alenso to reflect on how art symbolically and materially deals with geological, political, and cultural entanglements. By combining geology of media studies and Latin American political ecology, it studies how Alenso’s artworks allow us to discuss and highlight the ways in which art empowers socio-ecological claims and actions that configure other forms of resilience in the face of extractive capitalism. It also discusses how culture is intrinsically related to the history of the Earth, geological and mineral formations, and energy. The essay concludes by conceptualizing these artworks as archives of the planetary mine. This notion understands artistic praxis as a cultural archive recording the socio-ecological imbrications activated by the multiple dimensions of mining in Latin America.