Images and Connected Stories of Environmental Violence. Three Cases in Latin American Art

ARTÍCULO BREVE. DOSSIER de Fuegia. Vol. VIII (1), año 2025.

Abstract

This paper analyses a corpus of artworks belonging to the collection of the Museum of Latin American Art of Buenos Aires (MALBA) that, from their theme and type of artistic production, refer to the environment and the exploitation of nature in areas defined as areas of sacrifice. These are Gold in the morning I, II, III (1985) by Alfredo Jaar; KM 138 y KM 485 (2006) by María Teresa Ponce and Patria (2011) by Cristina Piffer. Although these artworks are in a space of artistic legitimation, such as the museum, the problems they depict do not occupy a central place in political agendas. The analysis will be done from a transdisciplinary approach and from linked history that, as an epistemological, methodological and theoretical position, connects regions, actors and non-linear times. They are artworks by different Latin American artists and under different themes, procedures and times that, however, are part of connected stories of dispossession, inequality and plundering. The proposed analysis helps to build not only new connections between the works, but also a narrative about art referring to ecocidal practices, highlighting the relevance of this topic.