Mediating Identities: Community Arts, Media, and Collective Identity in the Frontline Resistance to Fracking

Abstract

Vista Alegre is a municipality in the province of Neuquén, Argentina. Situated in a region traditionally known for its fruticulture economy, Vista Alegre has recently been identified as a potential location for fracking, a development that has resulted in widespread opposition among its inhabitants. The fight against fracking in Vista Alegre has followed a number of channels, from road blockades to art festivals and a legal challenge to the municipality. This paper analyses the conflict focusing on the forms of community art and media employed by the local assembly against fracking to widen and sustain participation in the struggle, and the role that these media have in mediating collective identity processes in the fight against fracking. Building on the concept of mediated identities (Fornäs and Xinaris, 2013), I look at these community art and media practices as dialogical (Kester, 2004). I propose that activities such as art festivals, mural painting and open radios contribute to collective identity processes through three mediating tactics: participation, knowledge sharing and the event modality. I conclude by arguing that these forms of community arts and media can be seen as a productive output of the conflict (Merlinsky, 2015), as they become crucial practices of cultural resistance.

Arts, place, and sacrifice zones: restoration of damaged relational values in a Chilean sacrifice zone

“…Such emphasis on identity as a relational value, activated through art practices, is relatively absent from the environmental literature. A notable exception is Serafini ( 2018 ), who focuses on community arts and notes that identity is central in activism as it facilitates collective action. While we concur with this author in the link between participation in artistic projects and collective identity, the present study remarks the relevance of representation of local values and life histories in the artworks for the activation of collective identity (Fig.…”

“…Subsequently, networking activated values like reciprocity, place attachment, heritage, and identity, and in turn, promoted agency. Serafini ( 2018 ) introduced the notion of art as a medium for social and political action, giving art a prefigurative approach. Accordingly, artistic activism would be an aesthetic-political practice that fosters collective action towards social and political change.…”

“…Dixon ( 2009 ) draws on Jacques Rancière’s work (2002) to argue that artistic representations of biodiversity challenge the current configuration of politics, focusing on the idea that artistic practices “reframe the network of relationships between spaces and times, subjects and objects, the common and the singular” [2009: 412]. Community arts against fracking in Argentina used paintings to represent the material processes behind the environmental struggle, thus shaping “symbolic, relational and material forms of cultural resistance” (Serafini 2018 : 10). Again, through the lens of Rancière, aesthetics is political as it has a role in shaping the collective worldview.…”

“…Authors analysing relational values acknowledge that activities such as fishing, gardening, and bird-watching, as well as group activities that involve playing, celebrating, and struggling together convey care, and create options to know the place and other inhabitants (Chan et al 2016 ). Artistic practices connect with identity (Jenkins 2010 ; Serafini 2018 ), care (Barros 2020 ) local knowledge (Rodriguez-Labajos et al 2021 ), and agency (Molina Barea 2018 ). Yet the scientific literature lacks contributions that address how engaged arts can be the pathway to restore the degraded landscape through enhanced relational values.…”

Extractivist violence and the COVID-19 conjuncture

“…With this conjuncture in mind, this article consists of a theoretical development of the concept of extractivist violence, informed by years of empirical research in Argentina (e.g. Serafini 2018; and engagement with anti-extractivist movements, and building on the work of scholars of extractivism and relevant theories on the nature of violence. I develop the concept of extractivist violence as a way of encapsulating the different forms of violence linked to the extractivist development paradigm.…”