Join us for the book launch of What The Mine Gives, The Mine Takes with Ana Alenso, editor and artist, Lucía Pizzani, artist contributor to the book, and Raquel Villar-Pérez, curator at Impressions Gallery.
Like a mighty river that flows and deviates from its course, What The Mine Gives, The Mine Takes invites us on a journey to decipher the hidden predatory logic within the mechanisms of gold mining exploitation and the resulting socio-ecological devastation in the Guayana and Venezuela’s Amazon regions. More than a warning, this publication presents a collective and sensitive cartography of this mining conflict through a diversity of art projects, poems, essays, diagrams, satellite visions, and documentary images.
In this conversation between Ana Alenso, editor and artist, Lucía Pizzani, artist contributor to the book, Raquel Villar-Pérez, curator at Impressions Gallery, and the public, we will discuss the origins of the book, the work of Latin American artists and how do they engage with communities affected by extractivist practices in their countries, and how the singularity of Guayana and Venezuela informs global debates on extractivism and climate emergency.
Ana Alenso. Berlin-based Venezuelan artist Ana Alenso’s artistic practice delves into the intersections of socio-ecological consequences stemming from extractivism, global resource politics, and the trade of precious metals and fossil fuels. Her installations are often temporary and closed-circuit assemblages, consisting of sculptures, photographs, sound, and video. Her poetic, industrial, yet darkly dystopian work is usually accompanied by field explorations and multidisciplinary collaborations in contexts of natural resource exploitation, activism, recycling, and site-specific artistic practices.
Lucía Pizzani. Born in Caracas and based in London, Pizzani’s practice involves the body and self always informed by materiality. Having worked as part of the environmental movement in Venezuela for many years, these concerns are still very present in her research and production. Recent exhibitions, residencies and commissions include Planet B Climate Change and the new sublime, curated by Nicolas Bourriaud at Palazzo Bolanni (Venice), Peckham24 (London), Casino Luxemburg (Luxemburg), TEA Museum (Tenerife), Casa Wabi and the Puerto Escondido Botanical Garden (Oaxaca, Mexico), LaunchPad Lab (Charente, France) and Hacienda La Trinidad Art Centre (Caracas).
Raquel Villar-Pérez. Raquel Villar-Pérez is the curator at Impressions Gallery in Bradford, where she is responsible for the exhibitions programme of the gallery, commissions, and public events. Broadly, she is interested in de- and anti- colonial discourses within contemporary visual art from the Global Majority. Her focus is on the work of women-identified image-makers who tackle notions of migration, transnational feminisms, social and environmental justice in original expansive ways.
Image: Marco Montiel Soto
Event Date: Saturday 24th February 2024
Categories: Arts | In Conversation | Liverpool | Photography | Poetry | Reading
