THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CORPORATIONS.

TERRITORIAL CONFLICTS AND MAPUCHE IDENTITY IN THE PHOTOGRAPHY OF PABLO PIOVANO

Abstract

Based on an analysis of the photographic essay Mapuche, el retorno de las voces antiguas (Mapuche, the return of the ancient voices) by the Argentine photographer Pablo E. Piovano, the article is structured around two main themes: the continuities in the disputes over Patagonian land and the care of sacred waters by the community's medicine women against the Norwegian state-owned renewable energy company Statkraft. The research problem focuses on the forms of representation of contemporary environmental problems and the difficulties of making visible the damage caused by extractivist practices of transnational corporations in the territories of the Global South. Methodologically, the photographic images are used as a starting point to put them into dialogue with historical, political and cultural processes of long duration that enrich their meanings. This work is part of the research for my doctoral thesis and is complemented by interviews with the artists, the protagonists of the images and the teams involved in the production and circulation of the images. The article aims to highlight the historical continuities of dispossession inaugurated by the creation of the Argentinean and Chilean nation-states at the end of the 19th century, based on the plundering and appropriation of indigenous bodies and lands. It also seeks to take into account the enormous capacity for resistance of indigenous peoples in the complex processes of cultural, spiritual, territorial and political recovery currently underway. In the current context of global climate emergency and exacerbated regional extractivism, knowing these indigenous stories in defense of natural and spiritual ecosystems is fundamental not only to continue building the long trajectories of resistance in our continent, but also to propose other ways of connecting with our natural resources.