New book on biotech, art, and politics in Argentina…
Walking Archives: The Soy Children
Eduardo Molinari
“Eduardo Molinari has produced a compelling document demonstrating that
the process of recombination can be wrenched from capital’s oppressive
grip, and put to use to expose and critique its expansion from modern
imperialism to a molecular invasion that establishes full spectrum
biocolonization. Juxtaposing fragments of political and cultural
history, political theory, mythology, and ecological study, in
conjunction with personal memories and observations, Molinari produces
an associational web that yields a long-awaited radicalization of
relational aesthetics.” – Critical Art Ensemble
Who are children of genetically modified soy production? What disowned
bastards are produced by the hybridization of agri-business, biotech,
capital, and culture?
To answer these questions the Archivo Caminante (Walking Archive)
embarks on a trip through the opaque and strange world of genetically
modified soya plants in Argentina in search of its inhabitants, forms
and structures, languages and narratives: the forces that swirl around
the soya rhizome. In the style of Gulliver’s Travels it makes visible
some of the routes in the soya chain giving shape to a new international
division of labor food policy in global semiocapitalism.
More than 50% of the cultivated lands in Argentina are for soya
production, with 90% of that area covered by Monsanto products and
representatives. This agrarian system and its results are only possible
using Roundup herbicide, the brand name of Monsanto’s glyphosate. The
rhizome formed by soya production dives deep into the Argentine society:
it organizes new political alliances, and, above all, modifies the
social and cultural structure of the country. Is there a transgenic
culture inside semiocapitalism? Does the soyazation process modify
culture and society, or is it the other way around, and soyazation is
only possible in a transgenic culture?
Bio: Eduardo Molinari is a visual artist who lives and works in Buenos
Aires, Argentina. In 2001 he founded the Archivo Caminante (Walking
Archive), a visual archive in progress that delves into existing and
imaginary relations between art, history and politics.
PDF available freely online (http://www.minorcompositions.info/?p=365).
Released by Minor Compositions, Wivenhoe / New York / Port Watson
Minor Compositions is a series of interventions & provocations drawing
from autonomous politics, avant-garde aesthetics, and the revolutions of
everyday life.
Minor Compositions is an imprint of Autonomedia
www.minorcompositions.info [log in to unmask]
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