About sculpture and its relationship with excess: The mestizo baroque style was the fusion of indigenous elements typical of the Andes with the European baroque. Recovering this aesthetic is interesting as a counterpoint to the digital aesthetic that seeks new imaginaries and ponders avant-garde proposals. It also represents an extractivist imprint that has been maintained over the centuries. While academia and the arts speak of the decolonial, the economy and consumption of the global north continues to be colonial and baroque. It tends to excess in the volumes of consumption; energy, food, clothing, entertainment. Everything turns out to be little, there is a desire for more. The sculpture shows parts of the territory of the lithium triangle that will be destroyed by the demand for thousands of tons of lithium that aim to preserve the social choreographies of excess.
The territory surrounding the Lithium Triangle was historically plundered by mining projects. Between southern Bolivia and northern Argentina and Chile, wars and constant disputes took place over the centuries. Mega-mining projects have been present since colonization: gold, copper, silver, tin, saltpeter, guano, lithium are some of the extracted goods.
Since we have decided to divide the sculpture into three sculptures, we will use a different metal in each sculpture, this in representation of the mineral diversity of the territory.
Below are some photographs of different mines in the tripartite territory.
The Lithium Triangle is an ecosystem that shares the salt flats and the volcanic puna. The race for energy transition and electromobility makes lithium a strategic resource. Leftist and rightist governments have positioned themselves at different extremes, in addition to the strong investments of transnational corporations that invest in the energy transition business, these geopolitical interests stress the triangle. We will divide the sculpture into three parts to represent the different extractivist processes faced by each extreme.
El Altiplano es inmensurable como un recuerdo. Piel de kirquincho, toca con sus extremos las cuatro puntas del cielo, sopla su densa brisa de bestia. El Altiplano es resplandeciente como un acero. Su soledad de luna, tambor de las sublevaciones, solfatara de las leyendas. Pastoras de turbiones y pesares, las vírgenes de la tierra alimentan la hoguera de la música. Los hombres, en el metal de sus cabellos, asilan el caliente perfume de los combates. Altiplano rayado de caminos y de tristeza como palma del minero.
El Altiplano es frecuente como el odio. Ciega, de pronto, como una oleada de sangre. El Altiplano duro de hielos y donde el frío es azul como la piel de los muertos. Sobre su lomo tatuado por las agujas ásperas del tiempo los labradores aymaras, su propia tumba a cuestas, con los fusiles y la honda le ahuyentan pájaros de luz a la noche. La vida se les tiza de silencio en los fogones mientras las lluvias inundan sus huesos y el canto del jilguero.
Altiplano sin fronteras, desplegado y violento como el fuego.
Sus charangos acentúan el color del infortunio. Su soledad horada, gota a gota, la piedra.
The proposal was based on a central sculpture representing the Lithium Triangle, above it a dripping system of a saline solution. This system reacts with the data of the extraction of lithium carbonate from Argentina, Chile and Bolivia. The weight of lithium is multiplied by the amount of liters of water needed for its production.
1 T. Li2CO3 = 2,000,000 L. H2O
The sculpture and the drip system were surrounded by an inverse audio piece made with sounds, voices and manifestations above and below the audible range recorded in the lithium triangle.
The sculpture will be transformed by the effects of the saline substances that fall on it and the aurality generated will be corrupted by the data from the lithium extraction in real time.The work expresses the process of deterioration of the sacrifice zone.
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