Predatory Infrastructures: Mining Extractivism and Indigenous Resistances in the Work of Ignacio Acosta

Abstract

This article examines how Ignacio Acosta’s work interrogates the extractive dynamics of global capitalism and articulates visual narratives in dialogue with the resistances of local and Indigenous communities. It analyses projects focused on copper extraction in Chile and iron mining in Sweden, adopting a qualitative approach grounded in the social sciences, and particularly in political ecology. The study argues that the artist’s practice exposes the material, financial, and biopolitical dimensions of these metallic elements; reveals how extractive infrastructures deplete resources, destroy biodiversity, and dispossess communities; and makes visible the cultural and political strategies of resistance to mining operations. The article concludes that the value of Acosta’s work lies in its capacity to rethink the links between mining, colonialism, and neoliberalism; to question the paradoxes of legal frameworks and green capitalism; and to imagine liveable futures emerging from the experiences of the territories most affected.