British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship, 2022
Monograph in process
After a century of fast-paced development, fatal dam collapses and polluted rivers in Latin America are demonstrating the limits of human mastery of water. Ambitious river restoration projects are underway to recover “dead” rivers and to reignite public connections to them, but progress is slow. It is no coincidence that parallel to this, the past ten years have seen a “liquid turn” in the arts in Latin America. This project offers the first monograph to examine human relations to water in the region through ecocritical analyses of infrastructures and artworks from the late nineteenth century through to the present. It will show how art-making is central to cultivating a hydrocommons where human health and ecological wellbeing exist in a continuum. Through a wide-ranging dissemination strategy and participatory workshops designed to engage broad publics, the research will contribute to the global challenge of collectively imagining water cultures attuned to environmental sustainability.
Top: Yeni y Nan, Integraciones en el agua, 1981.
Bottom: Rafael Freyre and Ana Teresa Barboza, Ecosistema del agua, 2019.
