January 14—15, 2023
San Franciso del Alfarcito, Jujuy
We are running out of time. Faced with the worsening of the climate crisis and the urgency of the energy transition, our first message is:
We no longer want to be a sacrifice zone. We need the transition, but we cannot accept just any energy transition, such as the one that is currently trying to be imposed on the peoples of the South through lithium mining, which amplifies social, ethnic and environmental inequalities. We must listen to the voices of the territories, in defense of water, salt flats and our common goods.
This meeting marks the continuation of a long-standing relationship between the research and environmental artivism community Aerocene, founded in 2015 by artist Tomás Saraceno, and the indigenous communities of Salinas Grandes and Laguna de Guayatayoc. In January 2020, the aerosolar sculpture Aerocene Pacha rose over the Salinas Grandes and floated with its pilot, Leticia Noemi Marqués, without the use of fossil fuels, helium or lithium, becoming the most sustainable flight in human history and setting 32 world records recognized by the FAI. The balloon carried the message “Water and life are worth more than lithium” written with the communities of Salinas Grandes and Laguna de Guayatayoc. The Fly with Aerocene Pacha project was supported by the music group BTS, curated by DaeHyung Lee.
On this occasion, the Aerocene team will travel together with representatives of the Colectivo de Acción por la Justicia Ecosocial (CAJE), including Maristella Svampa, Enrique Viale, Gastón Chillier, Melisa Argento, and Alejo de Risio, as well as the lawyer Alicia Chalabe and representatives of the Fundación Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, Bruno Fornillo, from the group Geopolítica y bienes comunes, curator Inés Katzenstein, and writers and environmentalists Claudia Aboaf, Gabriela Cabezón Cámara and Graciela Speranza.
In conjunction with an agenda of activities that includes workshops on key components for a just Ecosocial Transition from the global South and the centrality of the Rights of Nature in the defense of the Salinas Grandes and Laguna Guayatayoc watershed, the screening of the first cut of Pacha (Dir: Tomás Saraceno and Maximiliano Laina, Argentina/Germany, 2020) will take place. Pacha is an ever-changing film that will continue to be expanded and modified in ongoing dialogue with the communities, the changing situation in the Salinas Grandes, and the evolution of local and global strategies in the face of the environmental crisis, with a new arrangement being presented in June 2023 at Serpentine, London.
ACTIVITIES SCHEDULE
Friday, January 13
Location: Union of Hotel and Gastronomic Tourism Workers (UTHGRA), Jujuy section, located at 676 Benito Bárcena St., San Salvador de Jujuy.
Saturday, January 14th
Location: Alfarcito Community
8 hs.
Community breakfast in San Francisco de Alfarcito
Workshop 1 – Legal Strategies and Visibilization of the Rights of the Salinas Grandes
COMMUNITY LUNCH
Community lunch in San Francisco de Alfarcito
Practical workshops to generate strategies, images and messages for the visibilization of the struggle in defense of the Salinas Grandes.
Screening of Pacha (Dir: Tomás Saraceno and Maximiliano Laina, Argentina/Germany, 2020)
PACHA
A film with the Aerocene community by Tomás Saraceno with Maximiliano Laina, from the Fly with Aerocene Pacha series.
- Argentina/Germany, 2020
- Saturday 14 January 2023, 19 hs.
- Club Social y Deportivo el Porvenir, Av. San Martín s/n, San Francisco de Alfarcito
- 34 min.
Pacha highlights local communities’ transgenerational testimonies on climate change and their protest against lithium mega-mining, in defence of the salt flat’s fragile ecology, biodiversity and ancestral traditions.
Sunday, January 15th
Location: Alfarcito Community
COMMUNITY BREAKFAST
8 hs.
Community breakfast in San Francisco de Alfarcito
Workshop 2: How to give visibility to the struggle of communities in the face of the energy transition and increased lithium extraction – Several cases
COMMUNITY LUNCH
Community lunch in San Francisco de Alfarcito
Practical workshops to generate strategies, images and messages for the visibility of the struggle in defense of the Salinas Grandes.
Ecosocial Justice Action Collective (CAJE)
Maristella Svampa, Enrique Viale, Gastón Chillier y Melisa Argento, Alejo di Risio
FARN - Environment & Natural Resources Foundation
Pía Marchegiani, María Laura Castillo Díaz
Mirá - Ecofeminist and Socio-environmental Collective
Maristella Svampa, Claudia Aboaf, Gabriela Cabezón Cámara
AADEAA - Argentine Association of Environmental Lawyers
Enrique Viale, Maristella Svampa
Alicia Chalabe
Lawyer for the Indigenous Communities of Salinas Grandes, Jujuy
Verónica Chávez
President of the Aboriginal Community Santuario Tres Pozos
Inés Katzenstein
Visual Arts Curator
Graciela Speranza
Critic, Storyteller, Screenwriter
International Aerocene Community
Tomás Saraceno, Maxi Laina, Lucía Cash, Joaquín Ezcurra
