“Pedir permiso”. Puna Cosmopraxis and Contemporary Art in Salinas Grandes (Northwest of Argentina)

Abstract

In the summer of 2020, contemporary artist Tomás Saraceno installed Aerocene Pacha in Salinas Grandes (puna of Argentina). The project, inspired by the andean cosmovision and the debates around the Anthropocene, was conceived as a multidisciplinary and cooperative experience that involved the participation of artists, engineers, aeronauts, sociologists and the communities of the Table of the Salinas Grandes Basin and Lagoon of Guayatayoc. In this article, I will consider the cosmoterritorial relations that emerged as a result of the realization of Aerocene Pacha, focusing on those that the artist established with the communities of San Miguel de Colorados, Pozo Colorado and Santuario de Tres Pozos. My proposal is that although Saraceno adopted the andean concept of Pachamama and his work was characterized by a strong dialogue with the aboriginal communities, the senses, values and practices that his work mobilized in each of them were different. I will show that the connection that the artist stimulated between the two pachas can be conceptualized as an equivocation. While the pacha of Aerocene is based on the principle of the commons, the pacha of the communities is part of ecology of beings and practices that assume desire and secure the non-common.