TERRITORIO ECTOPLASMA: SESSION #5 Mineral extraction

Digital infrastructures are entangled with the landscapes of resource extraction. Accelerated extraction and consumption of minerals used for construction of batteries and devices, and the subsequent development of digital subjectivities has led to an unprecedented destruction of ecosystems. Speakers will move between land and sea, macro and micro scales, and time frames, lawmaking and activism to unveil emerging forms of resistance to resource extraction.

LARA ALMARCEGUI (online)
1 - 2 PM

Artist Lara Almarcegui looks into the essential, yet scarcely asked, questions about ownership of the ground and the depths beneath it. Her project Mineral Rights focuses on acquiring the rights on ore deposits underground in order to prevent their extraction. Almarcegui reminds us of how the territory is shaped at a geological level and how it is broken down and split into pieces for mine exploitation.

Lara Almarcegui has built up an artistic practice around exploring the material aspects of land and urban space. For over twenty years, she has worked in different cities, identifying abandoned, unused, or forgotten sites and examining the contemporary transformation processes brought about by social, political, and economic change. In recent years, Almarcegui has turned her attention to construction sites, in particular the composite materials used in the construction of new buildings and the cyclical relationship between land and architecture. Almarcegui has completed commissions for numerous international biennials and represented Spain at the 55th Venice Biennale (2013). She is represented by Gallery Ellen de Bruijne Projects in Amsterdam; Parra y Romero, Madrid and Mor Charpentier, Paris.

JOÁM EVANS, MONTESCOLA (online)
4:30 - 5:30 PM

Joám Evans will talk about El Observatorio Ibérico de la Minería (MINOB), an environmental citizenship initiative. MINOB functions as a tool available to social actors with an interest in mining and the prevention of its impacts and violations of social and environmental rights.

Joám Evans Pim is Assistant Professor of Peace and Conflict Research at Åbo Akademi University and lecturer at the Inter-University Institute for Social Development and Peace at the Universitat Jaume I. He coordinates the Iberian Mining Observatory (MINOB). He is co-author of "El fin de la minería: Una guía para lograr un mundo sin minería en 2050" (Seas at Risk, 2021) and "Reciclaje de metales: la alternativa a la minería" (Ecologistas en Acción, 2022).

GODOFREDO PEREIRA
6.30 -7.30

Lithium, a vital element for cheap, lightweight batteries used in phones, data centers or electric cars, is presented as fuel for the so-called green energy transition. In his talk, Godofredo Pereira discusses the many consequences of lithium extraction in the Atacama Desert in Chile and the current struggles against lithium mining in the North of Portugal. His work highlights the unique role played by lithium in the most recent capitalist drive towards the underground frontier.

Dr. Godofredo Enes Pereira is an architect and researcher. He is the Head of Programme for the MA Environmental Architecture at the Royal College of Art, London. Prior to joining the RCA, he taught at the Bartlett School of Architecture. He was a member of Forensic Architecture where he led the Atacama Desert Project, and led the Lithium Triangle Research Studio at the RCA. For the past decade Godofredo has been conducting research, publishing and exhibiting on environmental architectures and collective politics. He's the author of the book Savage Objects (Lisbon, 2012), is currently preparing the publication of 'Ex-Humus: Territorial Architectures from Below' and together with Susana Calo is concluding the book ‘CERFI: Militant Analysis, Institutional Programming and Collective Equipment’ (forthcoming Minor Compositions, 2023).

MARGARIDA MENDES
7.30 - 8.30 PM

Margarida Mendes’ practice is almost entirely dedicated to understanding how a shifting climate impacts society’s capacity for imagination. In this film screening, Mendes presents deep sea mining as an imminent threat to global ecosystems.

Margarida Mendes is a researcher, curator and educator, exploring the overlap between systems thinking, experimental film, sound practices and ecopedagogy. She creates transdisciplinary forums, exhibitions and experiential works where alternative modes of education and sensing practices may catalyse political imagination and restorative action. Mendes has been long involved in anti-extraction activism and ecopedagogy, collaborating with marine NGOs, Universities and institutions of the art world.

CONVERSATION WITH GODOFREDO PEREIRA, MARINA OTERO
8.30 - 9 PM
 

Consult the other sessions here or download the programme in pdf here.

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Free course fee