Paola Bascón
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Paola Bascón's MPhil/PhD Art research project
Extractive Legacies – Unearthing through Cuerpo-Territorio
Rooted in the concept of cuerpo-territorio, my project explores the intersections between mining, archaeology and migration, alongside the trans-Andean railway infrastructure (La Paz – Antofagasta). Through artistic and embodied practice, the project unfolds as a counter-cartography of the territory, where particular historical events are located. While tracing its present day reverberations, the research spans the period of the post-Pacific War (1880s) and the Chaco War (1930s) in Bolivia and the Atacama region in northern Chile.
This historical period encapsulates the intervention of Western capital in resource extraction, the rise of a regional mining oligarchy, the proliferation of archaeological expeditions, and the displacement of people to mining centres.
Minerals, ancient objects, land and people undergo parallel and interconnected processes of fragmentation and displacement driven by the project of modernity and the new developments of extractive infrastructures. Throughout the research I will work with archives and unarchiving, in-situ documentation and interventions, as well as workshops and participatory formats, seeking to engage in trans-disciplinary dialogues with local researchers and audiences to collectively unearth historical memory.
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