Art, Nature and Coloniality

Critiques of the Anthropocene

Abstract

This article proposes a critical reflection on the interrelationships between art, nature, and coloniality, with special attention to the contributions and critiques of the concept of the Anthropocene from Latin American perspectives. To develop this reflection, the article is organized into two parts. The first presents critiques of the Anthropocene based on the contributions of thinkers such as Aníbal Quijano, Ailton Krenak, Antonio Bispo, Deborah Danowski, and Marisol de la Cadena. Their formulations highlight the urgency of overcoming Western paradigms that treat nature as an external resource to culture, denouncing the colonial and extractivist character that underpins such discourses. The second part focuses on contemporary artistic practices that address these issues and are directly linked to debates on ecology, decoloniality, and feminisms. It analyzes the works and projects of artists such as Lucas Bambozzi, Paulo Tavares, Giselle Beiguelman, and Constanza Piña, whose poetics propose critical engagements with the environment and with the marks left by historical processes of violence, domination, and cultural erasure inherited from colonialism. These works not only denounce the effects of historical colonialism but also create spaces for aesthetic and political experimentation, in dialogue with other ways of imagining and being in the world.