Artwork / Quadra Minerale – Rare Earths

• Abstract: QUADRA MINERALE – TIERRAS RARAS 2017-2019
  On the basis of the war, deeply linked to mineral colonization, Rare Earth Elements, has sought to expand the geopolitical reading on the subject and the problems  derived from it – technology, economy and society – from a publication, an installation of the creative process, a pictorial polyptych and various works.

On the basis of the war, deeply linked to mineral colonization, Rare Earth Elements, has sought to expand the geopolitical reading on the subject and the problems derived from it technology, economy and society – from a publication, an installation of the creative process, a pictorial polyptych and various works in drawing, printmaking, video and photography.

• In 2010, the press began to talk about the so-called “war of the rare earths”.
• Rare Earths and lanthanides, have been extracted from the end of the 19th century.
• They belong to a large group of the periodic table of elements, which celebrates 150 years of history in 2019.
• In the 1960’s, they started being used for high technology China, United States, India and Brazil, are major producers of rare earths.
• China is now a key country in the production of the Rare Earths and its tight control has generated profound disagreements and conflicts – affection and disaffection – worldwide.

The development of the proposal concludes in the Vademécum: Quadra Minerale. Rare earths, other minerals and mining concepts. An approach to the elements and their technological uses in contemporaneity.

• Delves into the contemporary processes of technological production, regarding affection and disaffection they generate Makes visible the economic, political and military problems of the elements of the table and concepts derived from it.
• Historically focuses on past processes as conclusions of the present: colonization, post-colonization, decolonization.
• Makes these problems visible from the field of visual arts at a theoretical-practical level;each element is related to objects from my studio, works by other artists and myself.
• Builds international relations between Latin America, Europe, USA, Russia, the Asia-Pacific axis and some countries in the Middle East.