Powerful art about the dark side of extraction

El Sur – Narratives of Extraction
April 13–June 16
Group exhibition, Main hall, Färgfabriken in Stockholm
Curator: Victoria McCarthy (Argentina) in collaboration with Färgfabriken's curator Emilia Rosenqvist and process manager Daniel Urey.
Contributing artists: Ana Alenso (Venezuela), Alejandra Prieto (Chile), Marcela Magno (Argentina), Maxi Mamani (aka Bartolina Xixa, Argentina), Naomi Rincón-Gallardo (Mexico), Seba Calfuqueo (Chile).

In this spring's major exhibition at Färgfabriken, Latin American artists depict the brutal consequences of extraction for nature and people. The art works bear witness to environmental destruction, excessive violence and vulnerability, but also offer resistance through imagination and artistic power.

El Sur – Narratives of Extraction explores the intersection of contemporary art and extractivism. The selected art works critically engage with various aspects of extractivism as a planetary system, and examine the limits, possibilities, and effects of this intersection.

Through video, installation, photography, and sound, six artists explore how the exploitation of natural resources affects communities and ecosystems in countries such as Chile, Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentina, and Mexico. Departing from the extraction of oil, gold, and lithium, they delve into humanity’s devastating gold rush, the destruction of Andean salt flats, and green sacrifice zones. There are also works about water as a living space and about a post-extractivist world populated by creatures inspired by Mesoamerican myths.

All through the artists’ expressions is a strong undercurrent of ecofeminism and a sentiment of protest against post-colonial violence. The exhibition offers an opportunity to question a North-centred perception of the world and to understand the planet beyond constructed borders between the North and the South. In this process, the shadows cast by extractivism over the Latin American landmass are exposed.

Overall, El Sur raises a strong artistic alarm call from the South, yet it gives room for reflection and an opportunity to meet outstanding artists, the majority of which have not previously been shown in Sweden.

Read more about the artists on our website: https://fargfabriken.se/en/pa-...

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The concept extractivism has its origin in the Latin American context (extractivismo). It concerns a global system of large-scale extraction and exploitation of natural resources, often by transnational companies, with huge negative effects upon the environment, landscapes, and local communities.

Journalists are welcome to a preview on Friday 12 April at 10 am.
Curators Victoria McCarthy and Emilia Rosenqvist and the artist Ana Alenso will be present.
Färgfabriken's Main hall, Lövholmsbrinken 1.
Please pre-register your presence to: jessica@fargfabriken.se

More information: Jessica Rydén, press contact, jessica@fargfabriken.se, 0735-290794