Political ecologies: Extractivism, soyization and deforestation in 21st century’s visual culture

Abstract

In recent decades, sustainability and nature conservation have climbed positions among the biggest concerns of the planet's population. Year after year we see how natural disasters are repeated, deforestation progresses and the extinction of numerous animal and plant species accelerates, due not only to the pollution of the atmosphere and the extraction of natural resources (mining, rubber, wood, oil, etc.) but also to uncontrolled urbanization, mass tourism, intensive livestock farming, (transgenic) monocultures and pesticides. This paper will examine the works of several artists who show and/or denounce these ecocidal practices in Latin America, such as Ursula Biemann, Eduardo Molinari, Alejandro Meitlin or Abel Rodríguez. And we will do so with the double objective of offering, on the one hand, a panorama of artistic practices close to environmentalism and of reflecting, on the other, on the social and political function of art in the 21st century.