The first is the examination of hegemonic practices of production of meaning regarding cultural difference with a backdrop of the social, cultural and historical processes that underlie
Landscape of Difference
Christa J Olson explains that the formation of Ecuador as a postcolonial nation is largely shaped by the perception of the land as indigenous, reflecting a mythical identity rooted in the image of "the Indian." She highlights how nationalist discourses and practices from 1860 to 1950 reinforced this narrative, positioning Indigenous people as integral to the nation's land while also embodying cultural and racial anxieties Olson and other scholars argue that this Imaginary of the Indian was used by elites to project fears of Indigenous populations being backward and an obstacle to progress, influencing the country's national identity and developmental visions.
Entrapped within the ambivalent figure of the cultivated/uncultivated, these stereotypes have been hegemonic in Ecuador (Clark, 1998).8
6 Christa J Olson, Constitutive Visions: Indigeneity and Commonplaces of National Identity in
Republican Ecuador (University Park, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2014) C
Olson draws on Kenneth Burke’s research on the formation of US constitutional law to explore how rhetorical and constitutional analysis reveal the performative power of constitutional texts in shaping society Her conceptual approach emphasizes that the social impact of these texts is rooted in their ability to perform and influence social realities Like other constitutional rhetoricians, Olson argues that this performative force is fundamentally embedded in the language and framing of the constitutional documents, underscoring their role in actively shaping social norms and political structures.
The phrase "constitutions behind constitutions" highlights how a nation's fundamental legal framework achieves its strategic objectives through a diverse array of resilient and multimodal materials These include artistic images that circulate across various spaces, integrating legal principles into daily life and ensuring the constitution's principles are reinforced beyond formal documents This approach emphasizes the role of cultural and visual elements in embodying constitutional values throughout society.
Christian León's work, "Reinventing the Other: Indigenous Documentary in Ecuador," explores how indigenous communities are portrayed and reshaped through documentary filmmaking, emphasizing cultural reinvention and representation Meanwhile, Trinidad Pérez analyzes the depiction of Ecuadorian elites and indigenous alterity, highlighting how figures like Camilo Egas contributed to the iconography and cultural narratives that influence national identity Both works underscore the significance of visual culture and documentary arts in shaping perceptions of indigenous communities and power dynamics within Ecuadorian society and Latin America as a whole.
8 Kim Clark, “Racial Ideologies and the Quest for National Development: Debating the Agrarian Problem in Ecuador (1930-50),” Journal of Latin American Studies 30, no 2 (1998): 373-393
Racialized ideologies portraying indigenous and subaltern groups as lacking culture have fostered sociocultural and political effects that sustain their marginalization and exclusion The perception of indigenous peoples' backwardness, relative to modernity, has been used by the state to unify regional differences under centralized control Additionally, creating a dependent, adaptable subaltern aligns with the state's paternalistic approach, shaping their integration into the Ecuadorian nation through modernization programs and reinforcing systemic inequalities.
Olson highlights that from 1860 to 1950, white-mestizo elites frequently and strategically invoked the land as an indigenous homeland, shaping dominant narratives of national identity This recurrent emphasis on the land as rooted in indigenous heritage became a key element of the collective "common sense" that built the foundation of national identity during this period.
In 2015, Olson highlights how themes of identity were predominantly expressed through pictorial images, with Ecuadorian artists portraying indigenous peoples in ways that reinforced and legitimized their political roles within national narratives These visual representations played a crucial role in shaping public perceptions and were echoed in political texts, which frequently drew upon these images to communicate visions of the nation Notable examples of this artistic approach can be seen in the works of emblematic Ecuadorian painters who depicted indigenous communities, reflecting and reinforcing their place within the evolving national identity.
Joaquín Pinto, Antonio Salas, Agustín Guerrero, Rafael Troya, Camilo Egas, Eduardo
Kingman, Oswaldo Guayasamín, among others, whose styles are approached within the genres and tendencies of costumbrismo, landscape, indianismo, and indigenismo 9
Olson emphasizes that visual representations of Ecuador's land as indigenous are a core aspect of "Land-Indigeneity," serving as "constitutions-behind-the-Constitutions." These shared visions of geography and history possess a powerful constitutive force, shaping collective identity and cultural sovereignty beyond formal legal frameworks.
Organizing our sentiments, beliefs, and actions within the lifeworld creates a cohesive foundation for social identity A powerful force emerges from the generative potential of familiar experiences, fostering social belonging and recognition This intrinsic connection explains the enduring resilience of individuals' commitment to contemporary social arrangements, highlighting how familiarity and shared values sustain social stability and collective action.
Olson’s insightful observations highlight how enduring senses of Ecuadorian identity are triggered through visual representations of national land and indigeneity These landscape images play a crucial role in shaping collective perceptions and reinforcing the cultural topoi that define what it means to be Ecuadorian By exploring the visual dimension of these identity markers, we gain a deeper understanding of how national landscapes serve as powerful symbols that activate a collective sense of belonging and cultural continuity.
A brief review of these artists’ work highlights the central role of landscape and indigeneity in their art Notably, artists from the late 19th century, such as Troya, Pinto, and Guerrero, focused on depicting indigenous people in relation to uncultivated land, reflecting the prevailing political narrative that viewed indigenous communities as incapable of embracing civilization due to biological degeneration In contrast, artists from the 1920s began to portray indigenous people in connection with cultivated land, aligning with a shift in political discourse influenced by liberal ideas, which saw indigenous communities as potential contributors to national development.
Olson emphasizes the importance of analyzing the conceptual, symbolic, and contextual factors involved in the creation of Ecuador’s twelfth political constitutions between 1862 and 1947 She aims to highlight how political documents, along with related artifacts, acts, visual elements, political performances, and everyday material experiences, collectively contributed to nation-making This approach aligns with K Burke’s concept of a “Constitution-Behind-the-Constitution,” illustrating the deeper cultural and societal influences shaping constitutional development.
11 Among the series of multiple manifestations of such enduringness in the last decades in
During Rafael Correa Delgado's government, Ecuador’s 2008 Constitution uniquely recognized ‘nature’ as a subject of rights, fostering national unity and social inclusion This groundbreaking legal acknowledgment mobilized diverse social groups, including indigenous communities, around environmental and social justice agendas The constitutional recognition of nature occurred amid a period of strong state intervention, following years of neoliberal policies, with the government emphasizing social investment and the reassertion of national identity through powerful imagery and rhetoric such as “The Homeland Belongs Now to Everybody.”
“economies of vision,” within cultural contexts where the “Indian problem” has been regarded as central.12
Olson highlights the rhetorical power of images as “constitutions-behind-the-constitution,” illustrating their role in creating systems of equivalence and interchangeability through institutional, discursive, and technical arrangements These images of national identity, celebrated for their elasticity, resilience, and multimodality, have significantly shaped modern Ecuadorian public life and served as sites of social negotiation during moments of social tension Olson asserts that these commonplaces of identity function as hegemonic tools for identification and negotiation However, it is essential to interpret their constitutive role within the context of foundational racism embedded in the Ecuadorian state, which is crucial for understanding the theoretical significance of these identity symbols.
502 Bad GatewayUnable to reach the origin service The service may be down or it may not be responding to traffic from cloudflared
Collaborative Listenings
502 Bad GatewayUnable to reach the origin service The service may be down or it may not be responding to traffic from cloudflared
502 Bad GatewayUnable to reach the origin service The service may be down or it may not be responding to traffic from cloudflared
LaBelle explores how the voice shapes the formation of the "I" by navigating complex, unpredictable relationships, emphasizing its vital role in identity Unlike the traditional "mirror model" that relies on external visual reflection, the voice creates an affective space that connects the self and others through its projections It resonates both internally and externally, permeating every location and moment, while ultimately reaffirming its origin within the speaking body.
LaBelle highlights sound's fundamental characteristics—its inherent relational nature and material evanescence—particularly in relation to the voiced subject This perspective reveals the subject’s identity as shaped by its fleeting sense of place and emphasizes the importance of an adapted perceptual scheme Such a scheme enables us to understand agency within the ongoing interconnected networks of globalization, emphasizing the ephemeral and relational qualities of sound in shaping subjective experience.
His focus on the ambiguous materiality of the voice, which is partly bodily and spectrally realized through the shared medium of air, encourages us to see the subject as established through relational dynamics rather than seeking an essential core in primordial entities like God, the Logos, or the Word.
This article explores notions of agency and positionality through sound qualities such as accent, tone, timbre, resonance, and noise, drawing on Nancy (2007) It emphasizes LaBelle’s concept of the relational lessons of sound art, which conceptualize sound in terms of listening modes essential to understanding its cultural implications (LaBelle, 2006) Additionally, guided by Ana Maria Ochoa Gautier, the discussion examines how sound enables particular questions and relations that influence the worlding process, highlighting the role of listening in constructing the subaltern postcolonial subject in the Andes (Ochoa Gautier, 2014).
This article explores the importance of the aural turn in contemporary art, highlighting how time-based art practices since the 1960s have fostered dialogical interactions between sound and image It emphasizes avoiding binary oppositions or hierarchies between the eye and the ear, as suggested by Jonathan Sterne’s concept of “the audiovisual litany,” which critiques traditional theories rooted in seeing and hearing as separate, often opposing, sensory modalities Key figures like Marshall McLuhan and Walter Ong have historically shaped communication theories around paired assumptions of sensory differences, demonstrating the need to rethink the interplay between sound and vision in modern aesthetics.
The story of communication is often depicted as a three-act play: orality, literacy, and electronic consciousness Orality, representing sound-based culture, is positioned as the opposite of writing, which is seen as visual-based culture This framing often portrays orality as a distinction used to highlight cultural differences, particularly in non-Western societies.
Sterne critiques the concept of orality, warning that it risks perpetuating an idealized view of the cultural other as a recipient of a preliterate Western consciousness This romanticized perspective is evident in McLuhan and Ong’s depiction of the rise of electronic media as a "second orality," suggesting a nostalgic return to oral cultures Such interpretations can contribute to a distorted understanding of cultural differences, emphasizing a Western-centric view that may overlook the complexities of non-literate societies Recognizing these issues is crucial for developing a more nuanced and accurate portrayal of diverse cultural expressions in media studies.
The distinction between orality and literacy is often simplified as based on the difference between the ear and the eye, with some interpretations reducing oral tradition to its "aural nature" as suggested by McLuhan However, Stern references Paul Heyer and David Crowley's analysis of Harold Innis's approach, emphasizing that Innis's key focus is not solely on the sensory aspect but on how oral tradition highlights dialogue, thereby preventing monopolies of knowledge This dialogical characteristic of oral tradition complicates the traditional view and allows it to be considered within a critical theory of knowledge that examines power, authority, and social structures.
20 Stern emphasizes the significant impact of Christian theological debates from the early to mid-twentieth century on McLuhan and Ong's perspectives He argues that orality holds a profound place in communication history because it embodies the principles of Christian spiritualism, shaping how these scholars understand the evolution of communication.
Sterne highlights that the resurgence of orality through electronic post-literacy did not include the integration of indigenous voices into Canada's mainstream media This omission underscores the political implications of relying on McLuhan and Ong’s concept of “oral consciousness as a sonic consciousness,” which often overlooks marginalized communities Recognizing this gap reveals how media narratives can perpetuate existing power imbalances and exclude diverse cultural expressions.
Innis's perspective highlights the importance of the oral/literature dyad as a critical strategy to challenge hegemonic knowledge systems rooted in dogma By emphasizing the dialogical relationship between the eye and the ear, Innis advocates for a reflective inquiry into contemporary cultural production, questioning traditional modes of listening This approach reveals how orality's dialogical features can serve as a tool to critique systems of auditory domination, fostering a deeper understanding of the power dynamics embedded in historical listening practices.
Ochoa Gautier’s concept of “contrastive listenings” offers a crucial framework for exploring how modes of listening shape the formation of a subaltern postcolonial subject in the Andes She reveals that the voice, in relation to the ear, was a vital site in the assemblage of listening apparatuses used to produce citizens and construct the postcolonial Colombian nation Ochoa emphasizes that the Colombian national archive is formed through both written and aural materials, and that critically listening to this archive reveals that encounters with the Other in the Andes are driven by differing understandings of the human voice and their underlying cosmologies.
22 Ochoa Gautier’s central conceptual reference is Fabiỏn Ludeủa´s anthropotechnologies (Ibid.,
Ludeủa (2014) explores how the term underscores the processes through which the human voice functions as a tool for political transformation, blurring the boundaries between humans and nonhumans in the history of hominization This concept highlights the biopolitical dimension of Foucault’s notion of governmentality, emphasizing how techniques shape the constitution of the human species by enabling Homo sapiens to exert control over its own animal nature.
Collaboration and Dialogue
The realization of MRWE was driven by dialogic and collaborative processes that shaped the politically motivated agenda of art practices These practices are centered around the social turn in art, which emphasizes engagement with social issues and community involvement, establishing a significant shift in contemporary artistic approaches.
In the 1990s, conversational, participatory, and relational art emphasized dialogic and collaborative impulses that continue to influence contemporary practices Today’s artistic activities often focus on creating contexts for situational encounters among individuals from diverse cultural and social backgrounds Art critic Grant Kester highlights this shift by describing the artist as a “context provider,” fostering openness and empathy through conversational art pieces that encourage genuine interaction and understanding.
Prominent theorists like Claire Bishop, Grant Kester, Nicolas Bourriaud, Chantal Mouffe, and Jacques Rancière have developed a critical framework to evaluate socially engaged art, emphasizing its focus on participation, collaboration, and community since the 1990s Artists pursue diverse objectives such as creating experimental models of sociability, fostering dialogue, encouraging mutual understanding among conflicting groups, raising awareness of environmental issues, and promoting societal empowerment and cultural collaboration Kester highlights the value of dialogical artists who view their identity and participants as interconnected through situational encounters, using discursive exchange as a means for subjective transformation and promoting an ethics of recognition and mutual respect among diverse participants.
Kester emphasizes that a central challenge in achieving an “aesthetic of dialogic exchange and collaborative interaction” lies in the dialogic artist’s dedication to revitalizing the relational power of listening Drawing on Italian philosopher Gemma Corradi Fiumara, he highlights that fostering experiences of equality and recognition through situational encounters depends heavily on the artist’s commitment to acknowledging and embodying the often overlooked role of listening as a vital element of discursive knowledge.
A dialogically produced identity challenges the assertive tradition in Western philosophy and art, which emphasizes speaking, molding, and informing as central to modernity This approach underpins the modern subject’s identity formation, fostering an aesthetic rooted in dialogic exchange rather than unilateral assertion, thereby promoting a more interactive and reflective process of self-definition.
36 For Kester, activities related with an aesthetic of dialogic exchange and collaborative interaction
Performance art is characterized by its focus on the dynamic production of artist and participant identities through situational encounters, rather than relying on traditional notions of the "performer" as the sole expressive agent (Kester, 1999) While these activities deviate from conventional performance art, they play a crucial role in shaping the processual orientation of contemporary art, especially since the 1970s when artists' bodies—marked by race, class, and genre—challenged institutional conditions and revealed the power dynamics between viewers and art objects (Kester, 2004) Collaborative interaction aims to transcend language's primary function of naming and classifying, instead exploring deeper meanings of "logos" derived from its etymology in logein, which Corradi Fiumara interprets as "to lie with, to gather in, or to receive" (Ibid., 26).
The concept of the "aural turn" in contemporary art highlights how modern life is dominated by an all-encompassing productive landscape This shift fosters intense individualization, which often results in the violent suppression of difference As a consequence, the diverse plurality of social worlds becomes increasingly occluded, reflecting the impact of these cultural processes on societal complexity.
Individualization-as-lives
The "social turn" in contemporary art, marked by dialogic and collaborative practices since the 1990s, highlights how artistic production is deeply intertwined with neoliberal capitalism’s emphasis on individualism and competitiveness Sociologist Angela McRobbie explains that this shift from “everyone is an artist” to the more instrumental “everyone is creative” reflects how the figure of the creative individual has become central to promoting a culture driven by advanced cultural industries.
“libertarian” rhetoric that “the mission of government is to ‘free the creative potential of individuals’” (McRobbie 2011, 79) Relatedly, she further notes that
Individualization as a government strategy revitalizes the outdated modernist notion of individual creativity as an inner, untapped force However, this modernist conception is now instrumentalized within contemporary artistic and cultural production to support neoliberal politics, aiming to shift the workforce from mass employment to individual freelancing, thereby facilitating capital accumulation and enhanced productivity While dialogic and collaborative practices promote social participation and cooperation, they may also fall prey to libertarian rhetoric that encourages socially disadvantaged groups to develop their own creative capacities, often framing them as “others,” which risks serving capitalist interests under the guise of empowering marginalized communities.
Critical analysis of the instrumental use of “aesthetic strategies of the counter-culture” reveals their role in promoting neoliberal ideals of individualism and competitiveness, raising concerns about their potential to reinforce neoliberal values through socially-engaged art practices Claire Bishop highlights that many socially-engaged art projects aim to model social interactions sociologically, often focusing on addressing issues caused by the post-welfare state’s withdrawal of social benefits Additionally, available cultural stipends are increasingly allocated to activities akin to social work, mediated by cultural professionals and community managers These institutional conditions tend to foster self-empowered individuals, aligning the artist’s identity with neoliberal strategies that produce “self-standing or self-sufficient individuals,” minimizing reliance on state support and emphasizing self-management.
Mouffe, citing André Gorz, emphasizes that when self-exploitation becomes central to economic valorization, the production of subjectivity turns into a key site of conflict Critical art practices must identify and challenge the underlying domination strategies that force life into an all-encompassing productive framework, undermining the imaginary figures that produce subjects and identities According to Mouffe, one major strategy of domination in liberal politics involves disguising the fact that politics reflect specific power structures, thus censoring the idea that alternative possibilities can exist, as every social order is built on excluding other options.
She argues that concealing the inherent antagonism within society is achieved through the strategic reinforcement of liberalism’s core principle: the belief in a universal consensus based on reason This rationalist belief, fundamental to modern democracy and modernist aesthetic culture, has led to increased individualization practices Consequently, this fosters hegemonic narratives that portray others as needing cultivation and exploitation of their creative potential, ultimately intensifying social divisions.
From this perspective, the neo-liberalization of arts and culture supposes a series of challenges for socially committed art practices, regarding a phenomenon of
The concept of "individualization-as-lives" becomes effective by negating the inherent plurality of social worlds, leading to a narrowing of social diversity To counteract the negative sociocultural effects of this phenomenon, art must be oriented toward engaging with the symbolic dimensions of society, fostering new forms of connection and dialogue By promoting alternative modes of articulation among public spaces, art can expand the arena for hegemonic contestation, challenging dominant narratives and encouraging socio-cultural diversity This approach aligns with Mouffe's perspective on the importance of art in facilitating democratic pluralism and empowering marginalized voices within the social landscape.
The MRWE project emphasizes the importance of re-establishing listening as a vital component of discursive knowledge, thereby revealing the political dimension of art By doing so, it aims to create new opportunities for emergent sites of spectatorship and social identification, fostering a deeper engagement between audiences and artistic practice This approach aligns with the goal of opening up conditions for more inclusive and socially relevant artistic experiences.
MRWE processual listenings
MRWE's collaborative and dialogical approach is based on the belief that creating spaces for interaction and dialogue enhances equality and promotes the valuable recognition of diverse perspectives By fostering collaborative exchanges, artists can strengthen experiences of mutual understanding and respect The concept of discourse as a transformative tool plays a central role in facilitating meaningful connections and promoting social change through artistic engagement.
Working with diverse groups has enhanced my understanding of the experiential and relational aspects shaping identity, highlighting the importance of intercultural dialogue and modes of listening in artistic practice Moving beyond Western discursive traditions focused on speaking and informing, true dialogue emerges when listening allows voices to resonate beyond mere words, creating a deeper sense of connection In such encounters, where assertive discourse is suspended, social identities reveal their radical relationality, emphasizing bodily presence as fundamental to public interaction By cultivating listening as an ontological openness, participants experience a sense of equality and self-awareness that fosters empathetic recognition of difference, transforming cultural interactions into politically meaningful acts of cross-cultural engagement.
During the summer of 2015, residency in Portovelo and Zaruma was a central element of the MRWE process, fostering meaningful encounters among participants from diverse cultural backgrounds These interactions brought together individuals from humanities, social sciences, and arts, creating a rich exchange of perspectives The experience was characterized by an openness to listen and respond to an “impulse, call, pregon, ruego,” embodying a shared sense of ontological openness This collective “noise” resonated deeply, placing the participants’ identities in harmony and fostering a profound sense of resonance within their encounters.
Speech is not merely about speaking or conveying information; it also involves setting the tone and dictating meaning This is especially evident in a sociocultural space densely populated with labor stories, where residency creates ideal conditions for listening to the gaps and margins of these narratives These stories are shaped by transnational mining interests, prompting an inquiry into the dominant perspectives of difference that underpin the expansive capitalist politics of modernity and globalization.
Participating in the residency for the scholars and artists from Ecuador and
Canada provided an opportunity "to lie with, to gather in, to receive" (Kester, 1999), fostering meaningful dialogues with local artists, researchers, and authorities These dialogues inspired artworks that incorporated intentional reflexivity on their artistic and sociocultural identities The artworks reflected public perceptions of the lingering effects of mining, highlighting the importance of situational encounters in creating connections between different spaces These interactions contributed to establishing emergent sites of social identification and spectatorship, emphasizing the role of artistic practice in addressing sociocultural issues related to mining's impact.
By applying key concepts from sound art theory, I propose that the collaborative and dialogic approach fostered through critical art practices helps create meaningful connections between diverse cultural spaces This interplay amplifies the echo of difference, highlighting the transformative power of art in fostering intercultural dialogue and understanding.
The phrase “is made by making itself heard” highlights the importance of public listening as a fundamental aspect of art’s role in fostering communal spaces centered on bodily experience and recognition of difference These qualities enable art to intertwine with the symbolic structures of social worlds, promoting social cohesion and understanding The MRWE project integrates collaborative and dialogic approaches to expand the field of cultural and artistic resistance, emphasizing art’s capacity to facilitate subjective transformation This approach challenges hegemonic norms by encouraging opposition to the reduction of life to mere production, thus reinforcing art’s pivotal role in social and political activism.
The landscape of MRWE
Collaborative and dialogic art practices aim to confront the damaging effects of liberal politics rooted in the belief in universal rational consensus (Mouffe, 2013) These practices challenge the rise of individualization and hegemonic perceptions that depict others as needing to be cultivated or exploited for their creative potential By fostering resonant participatory encounters, art opposes contemporary domination strategies that negate social relationalities, promoting a relational ontology Ultimately, such art processes can undermine the imaginary environments that sustain capitalism’s reproduction, fostering social change and collective engagement (Mouffe, 2009).
The concept of the "landscape" is a central imaginary figure rooted in the historical development of the instrumental environment vital for expanding capitalist activities This cultural production assumes an observer for whom the spectacle of nature is "given," shaping how landscapes are perceived and valued As highlighted by multiple scholars, the cultural idea of the landscape plays a crucial role in understanding our relationship with nature and its influence on economic and social processes.
“landscape” became operative at the zenith of modernity, supported by the application of the technology of linear perspective in the representation of space (Steyerl, 2012).39
The colonization of the horizon through abstractive monocular geometry, as seen in modern landscape painting, embodies the assertion of a privileged observer who views the framed world as a testing ground for intervention This perspective intertwines the natural environment with technological advancements that linked territorial expansion to progress, fueling European colonial ambitions Consequently, it facilitated the rise of a modern observer whose identity was shaped by overlooking the perceptual experiences of others, emphasizing a narrative of dominance and control over nature and different worlds.
The modern observer can be understood as the subject shaped by models of vision embodied in the concept of the "landscape," which has emerged through technological and instrumental processes that establish symbolic guides on the territory This process echoes the Western tradition of logocentrism, viewing nature as a realm of divine intervention where the divine voice is made manifest through naming, describing, and classifying As a result, the landscape has become a powerful rhetorical object in contemporary art criticism, used to explore the identity and sovereignty of the observer.
Incidentally, this observer has been exposed as the subject of the synoptic view of the modern state––a view from above and from the center aimed at simplifying the social
Linear perspective is an abstraction that does not reflect subjective perception, instead creating a mathematical, flattened, infinite, and homogeneous space that is presented as reality (Steyerl, 2012) This perspective often simplifies natural diversity with productive purposes, aligning with the postmodern politics of vertical sovereignty where power structures are visualized as stacked horizontal layers of community As Hitto Steyerl quotes Eyal Weizman, this model of vision “splits space into stacked horizontal layers [being] different strata of community divided from each other on a y-axis, multiplying sites of conflict and violence” (Steyerl, 2012).
The project titled "Mountains and Rivers Without End," inspired by Gary Snyder's poem and chosen by art historian Andrés Villar, explores the longstanding Western view of nature as a divine realm, expanding the traditional concept of "landscape." This approach highlights how artists address the multifaceted impacts—environmental, cultural, and political—of mining in the region through diverse creative procedures These artistic methods reflect a broader inquiry into the dominant ocular-centric perspective of modernism, emphasizing its tendency to objectify natural phenomena as subjects of knowledge.
Adoption of these practices involves a reflexive awareness of the processes shaping the self-governing observer's identity As Ochoa Gautier (2015) highlights, this reflective process can create an illusion, where the landscape becomes a false mirror that reflects personal perceptions rather than the true reality Villar (2015) emphasizes that this reflection may blind individuals to what is actually present in the landscape, affecting their perception and understanding of their environment.
In this respect, Andrés Villar’s reference to the “endlessness” of the mountains and rivers “suggests some type of self-perpetuating matter that is always available,
40 The title of the project is taken from Gary Snyder´s homonymous poem Gary Snyder,
In "Mountains and Rivers without End," Villar highlights the cultural perception of mountains and rivers as symbols of endlessness and abundance, emphasizing the interconnectedness of fullness and bottomlessness He explains that this vision reveals how cultural knowledge often perceives the earth as inert matter with inherent purposiveness, which gains value solely through extraction and processing Villar calls attention to the illusion that the earth’s surface is a purposeless material, suggesting that this perception conceals deeper connections between being and nothingness that underpin our understanding of nature and value.
Our project explores the rhetorical appropriation of the concept of landscape, emphasizing the reflective methods used by MRWE artists to challenge traditional disciplinary perspectives This approach questions the dominant, modern modes of visual knowledge, highlighting how their collaborative and dialogic practices foster innovative artistic inquiry.
MRWE’s processes reveal how labor stories are shaped by political, cultural, and environmental resistance to dominant techno-hegemonic visions of the landscape Their project highlights acts of agency that foster alternative perspectives on nature, emphasizing the crucial role of art in expanding spaces for reflection and social critique.
This essay, prepared for the MRWE project and available at https://mrwe.org/andres-villar-mrwe/, critically opposes the detrimental sociocultural and environmental impacts of enclosing life within the restrictive framework of capitalist mining It highlights the need to challenge self-exploitative economic systems that harm communities and ecosystems, advocating for sustainable and equitable alternatives The analysis emphasizes the importance of resisting the narrowing effects of capitalist mining practices to promote social justice and environmental preservation.
Portovelo: an emblematic site of resistance and agency
Portovelo was a significant gold mining region in the 1920s and 1930s, exemplifying how the Andes' landscape was deliberately transformed to meet the productive goals of transnational investors According to geographer Andrea Carrión, the Portovelo camp established by SADCO in 1895 symbolized the power of industrial capitalism to exploit natural resources through social and spatial engineering, creating the conditions necessary for sustained production and workforce retention in remote areas However, this exercise of power faced resistance at various levels, particularly related to control over surface and underground operations and the interplay between local communities and global interests.
Geographical conditions significantly influenced the construction of the Portovelo industrial complex, presenting various levels of resistance and challenges Archival photos reveal that heavy industrial materials and equipment were dismantled and transported by muleback, with indigenous guides leading the animals along muddy, sloped, and narrow paths through the subtropical foothills, highlighting the difficult terrain faced during installation.
The 42 essays prepared for the MRWE project are available at https://mrwe.org/andrea-carrion-2016/ In southwestern Ecuador, the limited road infrastructure by the late nineteenth century posed some challenges, but these were minor compared to the geological resistances encountered by the company According to Andrea, these geological obstacles significantly hampered construction efforts and exploration activities in the region.
Carrión's district features a dense network of tunnels and quarries spanning the mountains along a nearly 15-kilometer diagonal plane, requiring complex engineering solutions like the Pique Americano (American shaft headframe) This included a 390-meter-deep tunnel connecting thirteen underground levels for ore extraction and transportation of workers and materials Additionally, the presence of gold intertwined with other metals and quartz-sulphide minerals necessitated specialized separation processes, involving techniques and toxic substances such as mercury and cyanide The ongoing use of these hazardous elements has contributed to contemporary environmental challenges in the region.
From a sociocultural perspective aligned with the goals of this chapter, Andrea Carrión emphasizes that establishing the necessary material conditions for SADCO’s expected profits required securing a committed workforce This involved producing a subaltern subject who linked socio-spatial segregation and campground "hygienism" with prosperity Carrión highlights that a combination of spatial segregation, discipline, benevolence, and social control formed a complex set of social and spatial strategies essential for maintaining this workforce and supporting the company's objectives.
The development of Portovelo as a “place-making project” involved establishing new social interrelations and shaping the social landscape of the area These processes informed subaltern subjects about the demands and discipline required in their work, fostering resistance and adaptation Carrión highlights that, in developing the mining district, the company had to navigate existing socio-spatial structures and emerging social powers, which significantly influenced the project's dynamics, productivity, and outcomes (Carrión, 2016).
Portovelo emerged as a privileged site for collective resistance against capitalism and state oppression, demonstrating David Harvey’s concept of the dialectic of place and space The cultural transformation brought by a transnational mining company facilitated the development of a profitable enclave dominated by foreign investors, while also fostering proletarianization and class solidarity among Ecuadorian workers According to Carrión, these resistance dynamics rooted in class solidarity and the emergence of waged mining labor are deeply connected to the historical processes that shaped Ecuador as a postcolonial nation, where labor increasingly assumed a governmental role.
43 Essay prepared for MRWE project, available at https://mrwe.org/andrea-carrion-2016/
Industrial labor conditions, wage regimes, harsh working environments, unhealthy living conditions, and socialist movements fostered class awareness and solidarity among workers Key labor struggles in 1919, 1935, and 1947 successfully pushed for redistribution of mining profits, enabling workers and communities to benefit from resource wealth Additionally, national regulations were implemented to establish public control over natural resources and promote the redistribution of mining royalties to local governments, supporting regional economic development.
Highlighting resistance emerging from a mining enclave like Portovelo reveals that race fundamentally shaped the centralized power of the Ecuadorian state Early industrial projects, such as the Portovelo mining operation, reflected racialized notions of work and workers, transforming indigenous and subaltern peoples into wage laborers These projects played a key role in reshaping individual and collective identities within the evolving space of citizenship, aligning with the nation’s pursuit of progress A clear sign of Ecuador’s shift towards an industrial regime is the widespread discourse among elites positioning indigenous peoples as vital contributors to national development, often depicted through visual representations emphasizing land as cultivated or uncultivated, reinforcing racial and spatial tropes (Olson, 2015).
The cultural transformation of labor in Ecuador's governmental framework was shaped by envisioning the land as in need of cultivation, emphasizing the urgency of "imposing order on a disorderly nature and human nature." This perspective reflects how instrumental views of the landscape facilitated the materialization of mining enclaves like Portovelo, leading to a reconfiguration of local social and economic relations.
In Andean nations with large indigenous populations, race historically marked the division between co-nationality and citizenship, where becoming literate symbolized leaving behind Indigenous status and overcoming a legacy of backwardness This transition was linked to the broader global processes that facilitated the expansion of modern capitalist rationality Within this context, interconnected social and spatial processes shaped the mining region’s sociocultural environment, fostering dynamic forms of subaltern resistance against prevailing structures.
The Ecuadorian state’s strategic effort to reconnect subaltern and indigenous groups to centralized power was achieved through the creation of a racialized “worker” identity, shaping hegemonic narratives Resistance in Portovelo, characterized by class solidarity among workers, also encompassed cultural expressions that preserved local identities, suggesting that class-based resistance intertwined with alternative political and cultural solidarities These dynamics challenged the rationalist principles of proletarianization by promoting projects of cultural self-determination Exploring stories from the mining district reveals how hegemonic visions of difference and instrumental views of nature fostered seeds of alterity, highlighting the complex cultural operations that underpin modernity and globalization's expansive rationality.
The conversion of Indians into waged workers is significant because it aims to free them from traditional forms of exploitation as resident peasants (huasipungeros) within haciendas However, this process also intensifies the suppression of their deeply rooted cultural practices, which are closely tied to indigenous communal life and agricultural cycles.
MRWE artworks and exhibitions
The MRWE project’s dialogic and collaborative approach facilitated the creation of artworks exhibited in Ecuador and Canada in 2016, highlighting diverse perspectives on gold mining's environmental and social impacts This process involved artists, researchers, and scholars from various disciplines and cultural backgrounds, enriching the exhibitions with a wide array of images, sounds, objects, and representations of the region’s history and geography The exhibitions, developed through a summer residency in Portovelo and Zaruma, demonstrated the importance of local participation, with local researchers guiding artists and scholars to significant sites and sharing valuable archives Composed of heterogeneous multimodal and multitemporal elements, these exhibitions serve as polyphonic assemblages that invite viewers to engage imaginatively with the mining landscape in southwestern Ecuador’s subtropical foothills.
47 Museo Municipal de Arte Moderno de Cuenca (MMAM), Centro de Arte Contemporáneo (CAC), ArtLab at the Department of Visual Arts, Western University, respectively
The Municipal Museum of Modern Art in Cuenca (MMAM) provided an ideal setting for the first MRWE exhibition, fostering dialogic and collaborative engagement throughout the process Spanning 650 square meters, the exhibition showcased significant collections, including artifacts from the Portovelo mineralogical museum owned by geologist Magner Turner, a documentary on Zaruma-born historian Martha Romero, an audio interview with Portovelo poet Roy Sigüenza, and a photographic essay by geographer Andrea Carrión exploring the mining landscapes of Portovelo and Zaruma These diverse presentations enhanced the project's goal of offering artists and scholars from Ecuador and Canada an immersive, firsthand experience of the mining region.
This article examines the procedures employed by artists, reflecting public perspectives on the sociocultural and symbolic significance of the elements incorporated into their artworks It combines detailed descriptions of the artworks with their analysis and includes quotations from artists throughout the MRWE process The discussion aims to contextualize the materials, objects, and references used, highlighting how they contribute to the overall meaning and cultural relevance of the artworks.
Twenty-eight local researchers contributed to the MRWE project, including Rodrigo Murillo Carrión, who helped design the itinerary of sites visited during the residency, and Mariana Cortázar, whose extensive photo archive of the Portovelo camp provided valuable insights Both are authors of significant publications on the history of Portovelo and Zaruma, enriching the project with their expertise.
The artists’ quoted statements are sourced from various documents created during the MRWE process, including a catalogue from the exhibition at MMAM, an application for the SSHRC Connection Grant, and materials from conferences hosted by the artists at prominent venues in Ecuador such as FLACSO in Quito, the University of Cuenca, and ITAE.
This article explores how residency programs foster relationships through artistic engagement, critically examining the use of landscape as a rhetorical tool to address issues in mining districts It highlights how these concerns reflect broader themes in contemporary art, such as reconnecting differences within a globalized context, which partly motivated the MRWE project The discussion emphasizes the importance of listening in collaborative and dialogic art practices, offering an interpretive framework that relates these themes to my own artistic work The analysis concludes by reflecting on the proposals of the MRWE artists, underscoring the project's significance in addressing ecological and social issues through art.
Ecuadorian artist Jenny Jaramillo showcased two artworks at the MRWE exhibitions, focusing on collage and performance art Her piece, "Tea at Five O’clock," features a series of nine collages created from photocopies of an extensive photographic archive originally owned by former SADCO administrators This archive documents various social and cultural moments within the mining district and captures the diverse activities and locations linked to SADCO's gold mining operations during the industrial boom.
Portovelo camp showcases the profound cultural transformations brought by a transnational company in the region The archive features images of public works, local and foreign celebrations, daily activities in private and public spaces, alongside depictions of machinery, plans, and productive endeavors These photographs highlight the significant socio-economic changes and community dynamics resulting from industrial development in the area.
50 Among the main photographic sources about the period of SADCO administration, are the
Elizabeth Tweedy Sykes and Romero Witt have curated private collections that reflect their curated vision of visual history Their work often features workers’ common areas, such as the enormous dining room at the Portovelo camp, highlighting everyday life and communal spaces The artist skillfully intertwines and reimagines this visual archive using modern collage techniques, adopting a contemporary constructive approach to create compelling and meaningful artwork.
Jaramillo’s decision to utilize the archiving material was rooted in discussions with Martha Romero, a Zaruma-born historian and the primary researcher of the Elizabeth Tweedy Sykes Archive Romero’s visual research highlights the rapid urban and sociocultural transformations brought about by the presence of a transnational company, focusing on changes in dress and the emerging permissibility of women in public spaces These photos reveal how modern technological influences introduced premature sociocultural habits into the region, especially in densely populated urban areas affected by mining activities Through her collages, Jenny Jaramillo examines the infiltration of modernity into the region’s social fabric and emphasizes the importance of the visual archive in revealing the socially constructed visibility and invisibility of bodies in the traditionally masculinized mining environment Her work reflects concerns about regulated body visibility within industrial spaces, achieved through techniques like mixing private and public imagery, transforming objects and forms, and using reproduction, juxtaposition, and obliteration to explore the complex relationships between subjects, objects, and contexts.
Jenny Jaramillo’s second exhibited artwork reflects on the region’s mining legacy by using archive materials to explore the presence of women in mining spaces Her untitled video-performance features her immobilized body in a fetal position, dressed in a heavy mining coat and helmet typical of SADCO workers, symbolizing the connection between personal memory and industrial history The piece employs objects from a private collection imbued with emotional associations, emphasizing the affective REMINISCENCES embedded in mining heritage Through subtle breathing movements and an authentic soundscape, Jaramillo's durational performance highlights the physical and sensory experiences within a mining environment Her artistic approach employs mimicry, repetition, quietism, and camouflage to challenge perceptions of vision and engage the viewer’s body, revealing how perception is conditioned by context and corporeal presence within performance art.
Portovelo’s exhibition explores the body as a dynamic medium of images, aiming to engage viewers deeply with collective memory The artwork emphasizes the subtle rhythms of the breathing body, inviting spectators to connect with the visceral and sonorous qualities of human presence This immersive experience encourages an intimacy with the physicality of the body, bridging the gap between visual perception and embodied memory.
Patrick Mahon’s installation, Ascending and Descending: Water
During his residency, Mahon captured striking photographs of the abandoned Kellogg swimming pool within the American complex in Portovelo, a site that holds significant cultural and historical importance The pool was originally built as a tribute to Cyrus Norman Kellogg, whose tragic and premature death in 1927 profoundly impacted the local community Through his work, Mahon shed light on this forgotten historical site, emphasizing its cultural relevance and preserving its memory within the context of regional history and architecture.
Thanks to Alex Rodríguez's generosity, the installation features 51 objects, including large-scale photographs printed on semi-transparent Tyvek fabric, which evoke a sense of ephemerality and materiality The artwork combines photographic images of an empty swimming pool, deconstructed into smaller parts to highlight its rocky, tiled, and piped components, emphasizing the material essence of the scene Geometric sections of reflective window screens extend the photographic surface, creating undulating, water-like forms that shift with the viewer’s perspective, enhancing the installation’s dynamic and immersive quality Additionally, a sculptural assemblage of PVC pipes, reminiscent of mountainous topography, adds a three-dimensional element that complements the overall exploration of landscape and materiality.
Mahon’s visit to the abandoned Kellogg swimming pool was part of the residency’s touring program, initiated by anthropologist Rodrigo Murillo Carrión, who is a primary researcher of Portovelo’s mining history Murillo Carrión considers the Kellogg swimming pool a valuable material remnant of the area's rich past This site symbolizes an era characterized by disciplined order and progress, reflecting the influence of American efforts to instill modernization in the region.
Conclusions
The MRWE exhibition project highlights the 2015 Portovelo and Zaruma residency as a key moment of collaborative, dialogic engagement, where participatory encounters shape artistic processes and outputs Influenced by Grant Kester’s idea that collaborative interactions foster identity formation through listening and exchange, the artworks reflect artists’ openness to listening, gathering, and receiving insights from their environment and community These works address the lingering sociocultural and environmental impacts of mining, while also exploring their own artistic and cultural identities Ultimately, the project demonstrates how situational encounters serve as powerful tools for subjective transformation, emphasizing the importance of recognizing and dialoguing with differences within Western societal contexts.
This chapter emphasizes the vital connection between listening and difference as foundational to an aesthetic of collaborative and dialogic interactions, showcasing art’s potential to challenge the negative impacts of neoliberal politics on society and the environment In contexts where relationships with others and the self are reduced to production and consumption, there is a dangerous denial of social plurality and an increase in careless interactions Listening, as an expression of the ontological openness inherent to the human subject, reveals the relational nature of social worlds and the ongoing possibility for meaningful connections within and across public spaces Artistic interventions that foster listening, openness, and empathy can effectively intervene in the symbolic realm, creating emergent sites of social identification and spectatorship The MRWE project exemplifies this by using a public encounter in a mining context to amplify stories of dispossession and resilience through a multitude of sonic voices, demonstrating art’s capacity to listen anew to difference and the resonances it produces.