ITALIA • BORN IN 1988

SOILED EARTH, DAMAGED BODIES
Mining takes power in the Andean countries

Presented here to the public for the first time, this sensitive and committed exhibition is the culmination of several years’ work and trips to four Latin American countries. This incredible journey was made possible thanks to the generous support of the Terre Solidaire Photo Prize for humanist and environmental photography, awarded by CCFD-Terre Solidaire. The images chronicle the complex coexistence between the mining industry and the indigenous communities of the Andean territories.

It is an ambitious project by documentary photographer Alessandro Cinque (who lives in Lima), begun seven years ago in Peru, the world’s second-largest producer of copper and silver. Mining contributes twice as much to the Peruvian economy as tourism. But for the Andean communities, it plunders their wealth and their water sources, the lifeblood of their economy. Just a few kilometres from the Peruvian border are the two colossal undertakings that launched Ecuador’s large-scale mining operations. Among them is Mirador, the project that sparked indigenous protests in 2012. Further south, in Argentina, civil resistance has managed to delay two mining projects in the town of Andalgalá. Since 2010, not a Saturday goes by without local communities taking to the streets in protest. Last December, Bolivia inaugurated its first industrialscale lithium plant in the Uyuni salt flats. Yet just three hours away, dozens of miners die every year searching for silver ore in the town of Potosí.

Peru, Ecuador, Argentina and Bolivia share a similar history of large-scale mining. In the style of the great Amerindian photographer Martín Chambi, using soft, lowcontrast images that do not add drama to drama, this exhibition reveals the constant struggle between economic growth, the preservation of traditional ways of life, the safeguarding of natural areas and the dramatic consequences on the population’s health.

LABYRINTHE VÉGÉTAL

 

An exhibition produced in partnership with CCFD-Terre Solidaire.

In 2023, Alessandro Cinque was awarded the first Terre Solidaire Photo Prize for humanist and environmental photography (with Sebastião Salgado as President of the jury), a grant of 30,000 euros financed by CCFD-Terre Solidaire, which makes use of photography to document the work it does around the world.