Events
Talk with Fragmentario
1 December 2023
María-Elena Pombo is a Venezuelan artist and researcher based in NYC. Her work is open-ended and investigates real and speculative pasts and presents to visualise alternative futures.
In her talk, Pombo discussed how she centres Earth matter in her practice, gathering historical and contemporary materials through participatory actions. These materials include avocado-seeds, water samples, onion-skins, plant-starches, algae, and more. Pombo uses ancient technologies and scientific inquiry to transform these materials into textile dye, leather, plastic, clay, glass, yarn, and even electricity and fuel for vehicles. These material re-imaginations explore the possibilities and realities beyond existing, often hegemonic narratives. They show that an alternative understanding of the past can lead to imagining alternative futures.