Extractivisms. 13th Leandre Cristòfol Art Biennial.

Bárbara Fluxá, Carolina Caycedo, Colectivo Cambalache (Carolina Caycedo, Alonso Gil and Federico Guzmán), Estampa (Roc Albalat, Pau Artigas, Marcel Pié, Marc Padró and Daniel Pitarch), FRAUD (Audrey Samson and Francîcco Gayardo), Gabriela Bettini, Ignacio Acosta, Joana Moll, Left Hand Rotation, Marilyn Boror Bor, Marina Planas, Paula Bruna, Raúl Silva, Rosell Meseguer, Sandra Gamarra Heshiki, Seba Calfuqueo.

The 13th Art Biennale Leandre Cristòfol focuses on the processes of resource extraction: on its implications, its contestations and its alternatives. With a prominent presence of Latin American artists, the exhibition responds to ecosocial crises with works that offer an antidote to the utilitarian vision of nature. The projects alert us to the consequences of a development based on intensive extraction and the commodification of resources in the service of unlimited growth and excessive consumption. Based on situated, critical and affirmative methodologies, the works situate life at the centre of ethical, political and economic issues; they reconsider the ways of valorising human and non-human life, and promote practices based on the common well-being.

Extractivism is a mode of production based on the privatization, extraction and commercialization of natural resources. This dynamic originates in European colonization, and in the exploitation of goods, bodies and knowledge this process entails. Today, extractivism is the operating logic of neoliberal capitalism, and is practiced by companies and governments everywhere. The argument that legitimizes extractivism is that it generates jobs and contributes to economic growth. However, it has profound impacts on people and ecosystems: it generates social inequalities and territorial conflicts; it contributes to resource depletion, biodiversity loss and environmental pollution; it produces large amounts of waste, and it strips local communities of their resources and territories.

The projects included in the Biennial demonstrate that contemporary extractivism is not only feeds on natural resources, but also by social, cultural and digital resources. Focusing on Spain’s colonial history with North Africa and Latin America, the works highlight the link between extractivism, colonialism and environmental degradation; they warn us of the pitfalls of green marketing; they speak of the extractive function of mass tourism, urban gentrification and information and communication technologies; they question the biopolitical function of landscape painting and the sculptural monument; they speak of the capacity for resistance of local communities; they show the restorative function of ancestral rituals based on respect and interdependence with nature; they carry out healing actions from popular culture, spirituality and the feminization of struggles.

Collaborating: Library of the Faculty of Arts, University of Lleida; research and development project “Visuality and Geoaesthetics in the Era of the Ecosocial Crisis” (VIGEO, PID2022-139211OB-I00), Faculty of Geography and History, University of Barcelona; R+D project “Sense of Place and Sociospatial Inclusion in Vulnerable Neighborhoods”, Faculty of Arts, University of Lleida (SENSCLUSIÓN, PID2021-123255OB-I00); Open University of Catalonia (UOC); CRISIS, La Capella Art Centre, Ajuntament de Barcelona.