Visual Narratives of Hydropower: Carolina Caycedo in Brazil
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15648/cl..40.2024.4527Keywords:
Carolina Caycedo, Brazil, dams, hydroelectric powerAbstract
Acting against the plausible public appreciation of dams as peaceful lakes or engineering feats, contemporary cultural production about hydropower narrates the experience of change as a way of drawing attention to the violence caused by the construction of mega-dams. This article aims to understand the politics of visibility in spaces that are often understood in an abstract, remote or idealized way and that, by the same token, can be easily erased by the discourses of progress that underpin many facets of Brazilian developmentalism. To do so, I focus on the work of Colombian artist Carolina Caycedo on the political and representational challenges of dam construction in Brazil, a country with a long history of dependence on hydroelectric power.
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