Launching on the 11 May and running for six weeks with a new film available to watch weekly, this season of artist-made films expands on the questions underlying Arts Catalyst’s ongoing research programme Extractable Matters – explored in the context of the recent two-day conference Assembly: Extractable Matters.

This film programme aims to explore the molecular effects of mining and extractive practices on a planetary scale. It tries to unpack these complex interdependencies – for instance, between the demand for forms of renewable energy that require the extraction of scarce resources and the disruption of ecosystems and communities – and expose existing forms of  alliances and solidarity between artists, activists, and those affected by mining industries.

The first film in the programme will be Chilean artist Ignacio Acosta’s film Litte ja Goabddá [Drones and Drums], 2018. In the film, Acosta explores the use of drone technologies by Sámi communities as decolonial tool to resist the mining exploration at Gállak in Jåhkåmåkke (Jokkmokk) in northern Sweden. Working in close collaboration with activists and Sámi families living and working in the threatened area, the project explores the link between drums and drones as navigation and communication tools and as forms of human and non-human resistance.

The film will be available to view for one week from Monday 11 May.

Other confirmed artists in the programme include Joshua Portway and Lise Autogena, Regina de Miguel and Rachel O’Reilly. A new film will be released weekly via our e-newsletter. Sign up here!

KEY TERMS

Extractable matters are both mineralogical and corporeal. They encompass anything that while being dug, removed, displaced, contaminated and exploited, produces profit and value. Extractable Matters is Arts Catalyst’s ongoing inquiry into the politics of extractive practices, of their infrastructures and effects on a planetary scale.