What the Mine Gives, the Mine Takes (2020) examines the reality of gold mining in the Amazonian regions of Venezuela. Amid the 2014–2016 oil crisis, Venezuela’s government turned to mega-mining of its precious mineral reserves, particularly gold. Employing an extraction process that leaves behind mercury and other byproducts as trace pollutants in water, this mining method had lasting effects on workers, local Indigenous communities, and the environment.
Titled after a popular idiom used in the mining areas of South America hinting at the karmic link between the yields of human extraction and its future toll, the work includes a prototype mining machine reminiscent of the bootleg contraptions built within the gold-mining industry of Venezuela. The installation also features various scraps, hoses, buckets, radiation and exhaust pipes, and natural elements – all transformed into rustling moving parts. Presented in an immersive scenography, these ‘sculptural machines’ draw on research with scientists, ex-military officers and Indigenous communities and activists, serving as a material investigation of the colonial legacies and power imbalances of global extractivism.
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Berlin-based Venezuelan artist Ana Alenso (b. 1982, Caracas) examines the paradoxes of petrocultures, raising questions about mechanisms of extractivism and other context-specific issues. Her solo exhibitions include ISLAND INNOVATOR, Kunstverein Arnsberg (2024); Como es arriba es abajo (As Above, So Below), Centro de Arte La Regenta, Gran Canaria (2023); Mad Rush, Nkrumah Volini, Tamale (2022). Her work has also been featured in group exhibitions including Forgive Us Our Trespasses, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2024); Streetfight, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (2022); the 3rd Geneva Biennale (2022).
EXHIBITED WORKS
Ana Alenso (b. 1982)
Lo que la mina te da, la mina te quita / What the Mine Gives, the Mine Takes, 2020
Variable materials
Variable dimensions
Courtesy of the artist
