New exhibition “Expanded Nature: making the invisible visible”

Starting in October, the exhibition “Naturaleza expandida: visibilizar lo invisible” (Expanded Nature: Making the invisible visible) will be presented in the Heritage Gallery of the La Moneda Cultural Center, Santiago, Chile, which seeks to reinforce a deeper and more comprehensive definition of what we understand as natural heritage. Thus, from science, society and culture lead us to reflect on how we relate to a diverse and constantly transforming nature.

This exhibition is the result of an investigation that began in 2019 by members of our team together with curator Carlo Rizzo and his project Wilderness Archive in the Bosque Pehuén Residency Program–which takes place in Fundación Mar Adentro’s privately protected area of conservation in the Araucanía Region–experience to which four artists later joined, who approach the problem of how to expand the way in which nature is defined, archived, documented, represented and protected, developing a deeper understanding of the visible and invisible signs that occur in the interaction between nature and people.

The participating artists are Josefina Astorga, Máximo Corvalán-Pincheira, Laboratorio del Eco–Gregorio Fontén, Miquel Moya and Carlo Rizzo himself, who approach these problems from the arts, with manifestations such as photographic and archival representation of wilderness and nature; observation and reflection on natural species in danger of extinction; the sounds of nature and the endemic foods of Chile, to develop a collective creation, in which viewers will formulate a redefinition of nature, based on their sensorial memory.

Maya Errázuriz, Art and Publications Manager at Fundación Mar Adentro and one of the curators of the exhibition, states that “the research that we have developed over these two years together with Carlo Rizzo precisely seeks to question that western distinction that is made between ‘nature’ and ‘culture’. We find it interesting to question nature in spaces where they are not usually presented, such as cultural centers or art museums, for this reason we appreciate the opportunity that the CCLM has given us to present more comprehensive reflections on the human-nature relationship.”

Following that thought, Carlo Rizzo, co-curator of the exhibition, adds that “we ought to be no less ambitious than to attempt to revolutionize traditional paradigms of ‘exhibiting’ nature. This show honors the complexity of planetary ecosystems by revealing their story through multiple layers. And the artists exhibiting here find meaning in the inextricable connections that make us nature, rather than mere observers of it.”

“Expanded Nature” investigates in to aspects that are visible as well as those that have been made invisible in the cultural construct of what we understand by natural heritage. At the same time that it rescues knowledge such as agroecology, the use of medicinal plants and beliefs linked to natural heritage.

This is an exhibition presented by La Moneda Cultural Center together with Fundación Mar Adentro, with the collaboration of Fundación Biodiversidad Alimentaria, Fundación Fungi and Geocom.

Schedule your visit here.