Minerva Cuevas presents Social Ecology at the MASP, São Paulo. The works presented in this exhibition collectively articulate the notion of “social ecology,” a concept formulated by the anarchist philosopher Murray Bookchin (1921–2006), which lends its name to the show. For Bookchin, the environmental crisis is inseparable from human hierarchies and inequalities; only a free and cooperative society can restore ecological balance. This perspective runs through Cuevas’s work, which offers a critique of neoliberalism and addresses debates over resource extraction, the forced displacement of populations, and the environmental devastation caused by industry worldwide.
Pursuing an archaeology of the present, Cuevas often reworks and appropriates logos, advertisements, and slogans from major corporations to examine issues of ownership and to allow us to visualize the major economic forces of capitalism.
Other works in the exhibition address the petroleum industry’s history and its impact on the territory and non-human lives. Many of these works, including paintings and sculptures, employ chapopote [tar]—a petroleum derivative—evoking both the substance’s use in pre-Hispanic ceremonies and the scars of extractivism, revealing that ecology is not separate from the social realm, but rather a site from which diverse social struggles and collective actions emerge.
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