The Extremadura project 'Non plus ultra' will be presented in Badajoz on 1 March.

The project, the first of Concomitentes in Extremadura, addresses the issue of the ecological crisis from an anti-imperial and decolonial perspective with the mediator, Jose Iglesias García-Arenal, and a group of six young people from the south of the province of Badajoz.

The project ‘Non plus ultra’, winner of the last edition of the ‘Youth Art for Sustainability Call’ of Concomitentes, will make its public presentation. ‘Fossil Seas: How to overcome the imaginary of drought. Participatory art projects in the face of the climate crisis’.’, the next friday, 1st March at 18.30hrs, at the Museo Extremeño e Iberoamericano de Arte Contemporáneo (MEIAC) in Badajoz.

Doomsday narratives in the face of the climate crisis present a future depleted by the scarcity of water and other resources. This perspective can trigger strong responses against extractive projects, but at the same time makes it difficult to imagine collective futures in areas threatened by desertification.

This meeting - which will present Concomitentes for the first time in Extremadura - seeks to propose ways of “re-enchanting” the territory and rooting ourselves in it in a way that does not replicate destructive structures inherited from modernity. Looking at water from a non-commercial perspective can show us other ways of inhabiting the territory that connect with problems that have already been solved in the past or that can help us to project ourselves into the future.

The day's programme to address these issues will be as follows:

18.30-18.45hrs. Presentation Concomitant and Non plus ultra, together with Jose Iglesias García-Arenal, mediator of ‘Non plus ultra’; and Fran Quiroga, coordinator of Concomitentes.

18.45-19.15hrs. Screening of “Tunnel of Stars” by Andrés García Vidal. The video piece connects the expulsion of the Moorish community of Hornachos with the current drought, showing the colonial roots of environmental destruction, but also the underground rivers of other ways of looking at the land that are still alive and feeding new generations.

19.15-20.00hrs. A conversation in which we will talk about the water policies we have inherited and how drought acts as a metaphor for other problems: the difficulty to take root and to face the uncertainty of young generations.

Participants:

Carlos Delgado, Mayor of Valverde de Burguillos, where, with the ‘Water Culture’ project, they highlight the heritage and memory linked to water.

Mª Ángeles Fernández, The journalist, together with Jairo Marcos in their joint project desplazados.org, investigates the impacts of large dams and issues such as memory, the human right to water and the climate emergency.

Jose Iglesias García-Arenal, mediator of ‘Non plus ultra’; and two principals.

Non plus ultra: Ecological issues from an anti-imperial perspective

‘Non plus ultra’ addresses the issue of the ecological crisis and the imperial nostalgia and colonial gaze that naturalises the destruction of ecosystems, by the mediator, Jose Iglesias García-Arenal (Madrid, 1991), who since 2019 has been directing the MAL Platform, dedicated to research and creation projects, exhibitions and other activities on the transformations of “diffuse urbanities” -, and a group of six young people between 26 and 34 years of age who live in the south of the province of Badajoz, between the regions of Campiña Sur, Tierra de Barros and Zafra-Río Bodión.