JOURNEY, understanding realities
From north to south,
from coast, mountains, and jungle,
long way.
No matter the end
but the journey,
every place
write a story.
“The fracture of humanity, the planet and all living beings is the greatest catastrophe we are experiencing in these times and is a predominant factor in the accelerated destruction of our planet, this fracture is justified by human supremacy and fed by modern Western official ontology”.
A modern Western official ontology that firstly distinguishes nature from culture, secondly, attributes culture exclusively to humans, and lastly says that nature is one and culture is multiple, multiculturalism, this western ontology that has justified and is still justifying human and non-human right violations. On the other hand, there is indigenous ontology that for them there is not human supremacy that subordinates, nor dominates, in contrast there are multiple natures, and multiple worlds living all together, multinaturalism. Thus, human being is not the only subject in the universe (Viveiros de Castro, 2014).
Is the indigenous vision still alive or can it overcome the influence of the modern ontology that establishes the new world economic order, on which destructive extractive policies are based, especially in the countries of the global south to satisfy the needs and demands of the global north?
This project intends to give answer to this question through the analysis of both ontologies Western and Indigenous across the anthropological and socio-science field perspective to understand the relationship of Indigenous communities with mining. To contextualize the analysis, the study is focused on the native Harakbut community of Puerto Luz in the Madre de Dios region, Peru throughout an ethnographic work. This analysis and field work lead to an understanding of the consequences of Western culture influence which determines that mining is a predatory and destroyer not only of the territories and the ecosystem but also destroyer of ontologies and transformer of new forms of life adapted to the new world order of economic policies based on destructive extractive activities established by the capitalist system.
The ethnographic work allowed to construct a journey path of understanding, an understanding of new realities without judgments, with the main aim to be aware and sensitize about different realities. This journey has four stages Research Mental Journey it refers the design research process, Mental-Body Journey where creative writing takes places, Body Make Journey, it depicts the route journeys taken to achieve the ethnographic work over narrative stories and Re-Telling Stories, based on the information gathered in the field work about human and non-human actors. The purpose of these stages is not to extract knowledge but narrate realities as tour guide designer.
The roots of my background are the motivation to carry out this project because I am Peru, I am also Spain, some part of Sweden and part of the world, I am from all bloods and from everywhere, it is with that eye that I see this project, I do not intend to judge , perhaps not solving such a complex problem, but I do want to make aware, feel, imagine, perhaps dream a future that heals wounds and finds those bonds of harmony, which means the only hope for all the beings that inhabit this planet.
Design research process
Creative Writing, compositions
Field work
Field work
It matters
Once upon a time
Once upon a time the ontology designed for the relationship between human and non-human,
once upon a time the unity of all the species that make up this ecosystem,
once upon a time the stories told, lived, assimilated, lost, rebuilt…
Once upon a time the paths walked, designed, destroyed, rebuilt, re-designed…
Once upon a time…
Exhibition
I have torn your clothes with the fury of my greed, blinded by my freedom,
I have left you there bleeding, crying, and imploring my mercy in a whisper.
But I’m gone, I’ve left you picking up the remains of my anger.
Today in the distance I find you naked and helpless,
I perceive in your eyes tiredness, melancholy,
dignity.
The furrows of your face show my impiety.
You notice my presence
Even in your fragility you extend your hands again,
as a sign of forgiveness.
“Mother is respected”
The mother is respected says a great popular saying.
The maternal condition has been protected throughout history as an almost divine bond between mother and child, although respect for her is not always lavished, even though it could be said that almost always a mother would be willing to offer and receive forgiveness.
In the same way, the analogy moves to “Mother Earth”, “Mother Nature”, “Pacha Mama”, as it is called in different cultures, to the immense value that she represents in our lives, her capacity for resilience against human aggression and the forgiveness that she offers us.
This sample of photographs has been taken in the Madre de Dios region, Peru and evidences the devastating mining activity that takes place in that Amazon region, but it is also the representation of all the regions around the world where economic development policies have been adopted based on extractive activities of destruction established by the world economic model, an economic model that persecutes us and is willing to maintain its system at all costs even if that means loss of our ecosystem, loss of values, cultural loss and even human losses.
The arrangement of images represents the following:
Green (life, abundance, generosity, and complacency).
Gray (colonialism, economic development based on the excessive exploitation of natural wealth).
White (Forgiveness and hope to re-write, redraw, re-paint, dream, imagine and build a future where a new harmony between human and non-human is designed).
Therefore, I invite you to imagine maternal forgiveness where a new harmony between human and non-human is redesigned.
Dare to imagine, re-write, re-draw…
The page is blank.
The cost of economic development, when human supremacy justifies everything.
