LANGE NACHT AUF DEM KIRCHE

From a research that was carried out in July 2019, we (my partner-  who is researching on her PhD in political science – and I) conducted a research in the community of Cocachacra located in the Tambo Valley-Arequipa. During this investigation we had the opportunity to witness and participate in a protest of the population against the Mine Tia Maria that belongs to the company Southern PERU. This mining porjects aims at exploiting the resource of copper just 1 kilometer away from the town. For that reason and knowing that the resource of water – an essential resource for their lifes and agriculture – would be in danger of being polluted and of competing in the use of this resource – they refuse this project.

The sculpture-performance is part of a research process about the concepts of development, nature and modernity that was carried out during this investigation in Peru in July and August 2019. Huanca represents the concept of Totem and of being a protector of space. It invites us to reflect on the use of nature as an object and not as a being. Through a number of pieces of wood that were commissioned by a mining company to delimit the territory of an already existing mining project in the province of Ancash, we seek to generate awareness of the concept of dominance of a territory and how human beings do not diminish their intention to occupy and control spaces, without taking into account the environment and the relationships that exist with the community and other beings that are part of this space.