From Energy to the Arts: Navigating Complexities in Brazil”

The extraction of natural resources represents a complex dilemma of our modern way of living. For the envisioned energy transition more minerals are needed. Their exploration, however, has irreversible impacts on the environment and communities. The talk will draw on efforts by artists in navigating the net of power complexities in Brazil that verge on politics and development. The latter is still characterized by economic growth and commodification, coined by Alberto Acosta as the “trap of the curse of plenty.” How do art interventions raise voices of protest and reflection? How do artists approach tragedies and engage with communities and female survivors affected by tailing dam ruptures like in Córrego do Feijão in Minas Gerais? Spanning colonial history and contemporary global socio-economic dependencies, the discussions will evolve around the arts’ space between resistance and cooperation, and the artists’ aim to generate empowerment, healing and economic diversification in extractive zones.

Dominika Glogowski has a professional background in visual arts, art history, and arts management. She is the founder of the interdisciplinary think tank artEC/Oindustry on mining and the arts and the co-founder of the arts hub Deep Earth Synergies in Cornwall, UK. She initiates, designs and leads art-science programs on wicked problems in relation to climate emergency, the extraction of natural resources and behavioural change. Recently: ClimArtLab with the KLI Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, Austria and Going Deep. Going Lithium. Inhabiting Green Technologies with Cornish Lithium, UK.