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You are warmly invited to the exhibition at the Peltz Gallery, Birkbeck School of Arts, 43 Gordon Square, London WC1H0PD6 April – 4 May 2017: El Encanto Our modern world owes a lot to a product native to Amazonia: natural rubber. As well as its contribution to the automobile and aviation industries in the form of the tyre, natural rubber is employed in a range of other products: from hoses and industrial conveyor belts to gloves, syringes, telegraph cables and condoms. A history of forced labour and brutality, however, lurks behind rubber production. In his project *El Encanto*, London-based artist Freddy Dewe Mathews documents traces of the rubber industry that linger still in the Putumayo region in Colombia. His art works explore this history, bringing together the Third and First Worlds, tradition and modernity, past and present. This is a collaboration between the artist Freddy Dewe Mathews and Dr Luciana Martins <http://www.bbk.ac.uk/languages/our-staff/luciana-martins>, with the support of the Centre for Iberian and Latin American Visual Studies (CILAVS) <http://www.bbk.ac.uk/cilavs/> *Programme of events* *6 April 2017, 6pm, Birkbeck Cinema*. *‘Landscapes of Abandonment’ roundtable* <https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/landscapes-of-abandonment-roundtable-tickets-32849359318> ‘Landscapes of Abandonment’ considers the histories of the Putumayo region in Colombia and the challenges of a critical artistic practice that interrogates the legacies of exploitative activities on abandoned places. After an introduction by Luciana Martins (Birkbeck), there will be short presentations by Jordan Goodman (UCL), Leslie Wylie (Leicester), and Xavier Ribas (Brighton) followed by a Q&A session and a wine reception. *7 April 2017, 6-9pm – Exhibition opening and reception at the Peltz Gallery.* <https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/el-encanto-exhibition-opening-and-reception-tickets-32854596984> *8 April 2017, 2.30-5pm, Birkbeck Cinema – Screening of No Paiz das Amazonas (In the Land of the Amazons, Silvino Santos, 1922, 129’)* <https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/screening-of-no-paiz-das-amazonas-tickets-32850630119> This is a unique opportunity to see pioneering moving images of Amazonia in the early twentieth century. Using footage made on his travels of more than 10,000 kilometres throughout Amazonia, Silvino Santos produced a view of the region as a modern, productive place, ready for future investment. *3 May 2017, 7-8pm Peltz Gallery – Artist in Conversation* <https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/artists-talk-freddy-dewe-mathews-tickets-32693292518> Join artist Freddy Dewe Mathews in conversation with curator Robert Leckie as they discuss the issues of landscape, progress, international trade and local mythology that are raised by Mathews’ Peltz Gallery exhibition ‘El Encanto’ Supported using public funding by Arts Council England <http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/> -- Dr Luciana Martins Reader in Latin American Visual Cultures Leverhulme Research Fellow School of Arts Birkbeck, University of London