Luis Canseco

Arróniz presents the exhibition Antes de lo humano, era el paisaje by Luis Canseco curated by Alberto Ríos de la Rosa.

Luis Canseco (Oaxaca, 1986) presents a material-based investigation that positions the landscape as an active agent and as a body wounded by the global extractivist regime. The work stems from the artist’s immersion in the graphite mines of his home state, a territory marked by the systematic extraction of this mineral, which is essential to the technology industry. The exhibition is the result of research into the consequences of that economy, using the mineral itself as instrument, subject, medium, archive, and testimony to the transformation of the environment.

The body of work questions how to approach, aesthetically, the processes of dispossession that shape contemporary Mexico. For the artist, this material operates as a symbol of current territorial tensions. As global demand for graphite rises exponentially due to its use in lithium batteries and “green” technologies, Oaxacan communities face the contamination of groundwater, the irreversible alteration of the landscape, and the displacement of traditional agricultural practices.

— Arróniz