PCA Faculty Steve Bisson Curates a Photography Exhibition in Peru

Exhibit Curated by Steve BISSON: A reflection on neoliberalism without borders, on the role, played by a few corporate giants at the expense of local populations who live in poverty, deprived of their sources of water supply, and trampled on their rights.

Peru is among the countries most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. At the end of January 2022, tens of thousands of miners protest in the streets to denounce working conditions that are abusive to human dignity and to ask for a minimum of guarantees for health safety. This situation further aggravates the quality of life in the mining regions already compromised by disconcerting pollution thresholds. The greedy profit rush of large multinationals to grab underground resources on the skin of workers and families, whose precariousness leaves little hope, brings us back to considering the dramatic impact of neo-colonialism in Latin America. A sense of ineluctability can give reason to Gilles Dauvé’s thesis, “capitalism will never be ecological.” From this point of view, the South American country seems to represent a borderline that magnifies issues of global interest, which all concern, in short, and with all due respect, advertising in green sauce. It is possible to unmask the threads that intertwine the puppeteers by digging into the reasons for exploitation, ecological abomination, and social inequalities. Here is the Peruvian lesson.

The three authors involved for the exhibition at Lab27 worked from personal angles on this theme. The Peruvian Paccarik Orue takes us to Cerro de Pasco, one of the highest cities in the world (over 4,000 meters above sea level) and known since the time of the Spanish invasions for its rich deposits of silver. Today, foreign companies make their profits here by poisoning the land and the fate of native peoples. The new generations carry unsustainable traces of lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, and other externalities in their blood. The title of the ‘El Muqui’ project takes us back to the daily life, folklore, and local traditions of the people of Cerro de Pasco, who writes Orue, are proud of their origins and their contribution to the economy of Peru. Their desire is not to close the mine but to operate responsibly towards the community. Orue celebrates the inhabitants of Cerro de Pasco, and the desire to safeguard the memory and integrity of their places. A balance that appears as distant as a mirage.

Thomas Locke Hobbs chose to move to South America many years ago. Peru has become a second homeland. Juliaca is a city of about 400,000 inhabitants near Lake Titicaca in the altiplano of southern Peru. Fueled by internal migration and the economic activity of nearby mines (legal and illegal), the city has grown rapidly and informally, with little attention to urban services and, therefore, the quality of settlements. The temporary nature of the buildings, the uncertain facades, the gray and dusty appearance remind us of a weak economy which, since the colonial era, has been primarily structured by the global flows of raw materials, mainly the price of copper and ‘gold. According to the American photographer Juliaca, it is a kind of local response or adaptation to global challenges and the wind and the crisp light that filters through clear skies and a subtle atmosphere.

Peru: a toxic state is a 5-year journey by Alessandro Cinque that covers 10,000,000 kilometers and 35 mining communities. The geography in these regions leverages on mining. In addition to killing livestock and the possibility of sustenance, pollution causes the inhabitants to anemia, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and congenital malformations. A reflection on neoliberalism without borders, on the role, played by a few corporate giants at the expense of local populations who live in poverty, deprived of their sources of water supply, and trampled on their rights.

Open through April 3rd

Strada Scudetto 27

31100 – Treviso (TV), Italy