PINECENE: In the Wake of a Plunder
Mercedes Lozano, Tin Wilke
A living archive of colonialism, extractivism, resistance, and ecological transformation across Germany and Wallmapu.
PINECENE: In the Wake of a Plunder (PINOCENO: Tras el rastro de un despojo, desde Alemania al Sur) traces the entanglements between colonialism, extractivism, and transnational histories through pine plantations in the southern territories of Argentina and Chile, in Wallmapu—the ancestral land of the Mapuche people.
The pine appears as a living archive: both witness and intruder. Introduced as part of extractive economies, it reveals processes of land appropriation, monoculture, and the transformation of ecosystems into industrial infrastructures.
Through texts, images, audio, video, and objects, the exhibition assembles a layered research archive connecting geographies and historical periods. It asks how Germany is linked to Latin America through systems of power and exploitation, and how those histories continue to resonate in contemporary ecological crises such as wildfires and agro-industrial expansion.
Rather than offering a linear narrative, PINECENE opens a space for reflection on resistance, memory, and the possibility of reimagining relationships with land and territory.
Credits
Artist and co-researcher: Mercedes Lozano
Co-researcher and producer: Tin Wilke
Curated by Katha Eitner
PINECENE was a Berlin-based project by Karne Kunst gUG, under the artistic direction of Marcela Villanueva, supported by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion, and presented at Bardo Projektraum.
More information at Karne Kunst
Project documentation
Instagram post