“In Difesa della Natura”

Abstract

This contribution, inspired by critical debates on the Anthropocene and by the ideas of key Latin American thinkers and academics such as Maristella Svampa, aims at offering an overview of selected works of artists who operate in Latin America. Their work highlights some of the key contradictions and emerging arguments in the debate around the Anthropocene, notably its colonial and patriarchal character. Some of them represent the current systemic crisis induced by extractive capitalism, and underline the relevance of Indigenous peoples’ worldview and traditional knowledge or the connection between the exploitation of feminine bodies and extractivism. Their direct engagement and collaboration with Indigenous communities that resist extractivism visibilizes their agency and active contribution to radical transformation and ecological change, while contributing to challenge the power structures in which these operate.