In the mid-1980s the Swedish mining company Boliden exported 20,000 tons of toxic residues to Arica under Chile’s neoliberal constitution implemented by the military dictatorship. The toxic waste had devastating consequences for the nearby communities that continue to unfold in the present. WASTELANDS explores the neocolonial entanglements between south and north that connect land, communities, and struggle to the longer history of extraction and waste without justice or reparations.

Julia Willén is assistant lecturer and PhD candidate at REMESO, Linköping University. Her research and writing concern the futures past and afterlife of colonialism, and the literary imaginations of apartheid whiteness in South Africa. Recent publications “Arkivets plats i antropocen”, Ord & Bild, 2022; and with Andrew van der Vlies, "Reading for Hope", Safundi, 2018.

Claudia del Fierro's practice include photography, video and installations. A frequent theme in her work is the relationship between a community, its environment and history. Her work involves actions and public interventions combined with ethnography and documentary that result in moving images which borders between fiction and documentary.

The lecture is part of the elective course The horror, the horror says Mr. Kurtz at Malmö Art Academy and is open to the public. The lecture will be held by Julia Willén in English.