CAMBIO DE FUERZA by Adrián Balseca

Here is the English translation of the Italian text you provided:

---

On Friday, November 1, 2024, the PAV Parco Arte Vivente, in the setting of Artissima, presents the first solo exhibition in Italy of Ecuadorian artist Adrián Balseca (1989), curated by Marco Scotini. The exhibition explores the role of humans as agents in the ecosystem, focusing on the relationships between economy, ecology, and memory, as well as the power dynamics related to extractivism and the exploitation of nature.

Working through a variety of narratives that combine real facts, historical archives, ethno-fiction, and memory, Adrián Balseca presents a series of projects developed over the last ten years, focusing on the local stories of his country of origin. In 2008, with the implementation of Article 71, Ecuador became the first country in the world to constitutionally recognize nature as a rights-bearing entity: "Nature, or Pacha Mama, where life is reproduced and realized, has the right to integral respect for its existence and the maintenance and regeneration of its vital cycles, structure, functions, and evolutionary processes." A new perspective made possible by the rich presence of indigenous peoples in the country, who, demanding to be useful voices to actively cooperate in decisions regarding the territories in which they live, contributed to generating a novel political and juridical reflection that shifted attention from an anthropocentric vision of rights to a biocentric one. Despite the country's constitution legally protecting one of the planet's most biodiverse areas, extractive activities are not in recession, along with the social and environmental damages they cause. In this context, many thinkers in Ecuador have developed socio-economic concepts of degrowth highlighting the biophysical limits of the neoliberal model and proposing other development possibilities, aiming to mitigate and reduce the impact of human actions on climate change.

The exhibition title Cambio de fuerza refers to the slogan "The Strength of Change" used in the late 1970s during the electoral campaign of Jaime Roldós Aguilera, the first democratically elected president after the dictatorship period, who held office from 1979 to 1981. By reorienting the content of the phrase, the artist questions to what extent we can push this political "desire" to convert such hope for change into a more pragmatic idea, extending it to the field of political ecology.

Balseca's interest in this "change of force" is visible from the work Medio Camino (2014), in which a 1977 Andino Miura, known as the first mass-produced car in Ecuador during the "oil boom" period, is pushed by a group of people along the Pan-American Highway that traverses the Andean country and connects Alaska to Argentina. In the greenhouse space of the PAV, we find PLANTASIA OIL Co. (2021-ongoing), an installation composed of barrels and cans that once contained motor oil and industrial lubricants produced by Italian and transnational companies like Shell, Total, Fiat, and Agip, in which various plant species grow, intertwining themselves among the waste products of the petroleum economy that sees the city as a symbol of modernity, underscoring nature's imperative in rebuilding life along the thresholds and liminal spaces uninhabited by humans. The show continues with The Unbalanced Land (2019), a sound installation comprising sculptural objects and a photographic series originating from the travel account Travels Amongst the Great Andes of the Equator (1892) by British scientist and explorer Edward Whymper, reflecting on the history and transformations of capitalist and colonial systems in Latin America. The work examines the perceptual and representational models of the colonial narrative of European origin, particularly the travel narrative, creating a space-time fracture that connects the past and present. Lastly, The Skin of Labour (2016) is an installation arising from the observation of an endemic forest of Hevea Brasiliensis (rubber tree) present in the vital territory of the Ecuadorian Amazon, where, starting at the end of the 19th century with the advent of the rubber industry, indigenous lands were expropriated to extract derivatives from this plant species. The installation questions the fundamental values underpinning human exploitation of nature and the impact of the technicization of labor.

The exhibition Cambio de fuerza by Adrián Balseca, starting from the ecosystemic specificities of Ecuador, raises globally relevant issues by highlighting the environmental and cultural responsibilities of the Western neoliberal economy, through the deconstruction of colonial narratives and the denunciation of power dynamics and exploitation.

Adrián Balseca (Quito, Ecuador, 1989). He lives and works in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Among his latest exhibitions are: Nyctalopia (Void Art Centre, Derry, 2023); In Praise of Darkness, 55° Visions Du Réel International Film Festival (Nyon, 2024); Critical Landscapes: Selected Works from the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection (MCA Denver, Denver, 2023); ROUTING RUBBER (New York, 2024; The genetically altered seed breaks the rhythm of an earthly music-Encounters over Several Plants (TATE Modern, London, 2022); Who Tells a Tale Adds a Tail: Latin America and Contemporary Art (Denver Art Museum, Denver, 2022); 34th São Paulo Biennial: Faz escuro mas eu canto (Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion, São Paulo, 2021), among others.

In the context of the exhibition, on November 20, the AEF/PAV (Educational and Formative Activities) propose Artist's Studio, a free contemporary art training encounter to analyze the creative practices of Adrián Balseca, who, starting from archives of objects, stories, and memories, deciphers meanings through graphics and design with a comprehensive and transdisciplinary artistic approach. The meeting, dedicated to teachers from schools of all levels in the Piedmont Region, takes place within the aulARTE project promoted by the Foundation for Modern and Contemporary Art CRT. In the workshop realm, Innatured Beings is the program aimed at secondary schools addressing hybridizations as exercises of traversal and transformation ever-present in nature, as well as in mythology and much folklore and fairy literature.

The exhibition Cambio de fuerza is realized in collaboration with Galeria Madragoa (Lisbon) and with the support of the Compagnia di San Paolo, the CRT Foundation, the Piedmont Region, and the City of Turin.
Web: www.parcoartevivente.it