05.11.2024 > 06.02.2025

La escritura de las piedras is a research and creation project that, from artistic practices, addresses the effects of the energy transition on the territory. Both the traditional production system based on fossil fuels and renewable energies generate a significant impact on the environment. The current moment of transition between both models presents itself as a unique observatory to analyze these issues linking past, present and future from a perspective that connects the local with the global.

From the closure of the coal mine to environmental restoration projects, the proposal is articulated through a set of works that address, among other issues, the impact of extractive processes on the territory, the profound knowledge of time or the application of geoengineering as a solution to mitigate the effects of climate change.

La escritura de las piedras is located in the Gran Corta de Fabero, one of the largest open-pit coal mines in Europe whose operation ceased in 2018 as a result of the change of energy model. This area is currently undergoing an intense process of environmental restoration that involves the modeling of the topography and revegetation of the site. In this context, stone has become a common element and a key component in both activities. On the one hand, the main action during its operation consists in turning the rock into stones in order to reach the coal seams. On the other hand, in the process of environmental restoration, the abandoned slopes and mounds of stones must be distributed in order to recompose the topography. The title of the project is taken from the book which bears the same name, published by Roger Caillois in 1970, in which he reveals his obsession with stones.

The exhibition links with previous works on the impact of coal mining -Las montañas perfectas (FCAYC, 2012)¬- extending the reflection to new issues such as the recovery processes of the natural landscape.  It also benefits from the invaluable collaboration of José Joaquín Parra Bañón, who, for this occasion, has extracted a Stone Martyrology from his Mineral Lexicon:

Forest

The geographer records the primal beauty of what has not entirely succumbed to the destructive impact of the mallet or the insatiable hunger of the chisel’s edge, of that which resists dissection by the relentless blows of the tool. He captures the echoes of the forests that once covered the surface—sigillarias, dicksonias, cyatheas, and perhaps other tree ferns—which now, eons later, lie transformed into minerals, decomposed amid slate and clay, impassive and blackened by darkness, buried deep underground, near the roar of the inferno. He records reality crystallized in irregular, imperfect forms—sworn enemies of smoothness and symmetry.

José Joaquín Parra Bañon

Context

Despite opposition and skepticism regarding the shift in energy models, the transition is now an undeniable reality. This is driven not only by the fear of climate change and growing awareness of planetary limits but also by the fact that renewables have secured a place in government agendas and markets. Considering European policies post-2015 Paris Agreement, despite delays and unforeseen events such as the war in Ukraine, the shift is remarkable. Moreover, by 2021, the cost of wind energy production had fallen below that of fossil fuel-based energy in many countries across Europe, the Americas, and Asia.

On the ground, this shift is equally evident as coal extraction and its auxiliary industries have ceased nationwide without major protests from a traditionally combative sector. Other indicators of the irreversibility of this process include the recent closure and demolition of many thermal power plants that once supplied the country and the mines that sustained them, as well as environmental restoration projects in areas formerly tied to coal extraction.

To map the scope of this new energy paradigm accurately, it is essential to understand that the model shift is managed by regional governments within a nationally designed plan, based on European regulations and directives. These, in turn, are motivated by a global climate crisis and strategic economic interests. However, in transitioning regions, this model shift directly impacts rural areas with fragile economies, often reliant on primary sectors and dependent on their immediate environment.

At the opposite pole from technological solutionism, there is a resurgence of an alternative view that seeks a renewed connection with nature. This perspective challenges the various forms of extractivism that exploit the land, reminds us of the visual impact of a wind farm on the landscape, and questions the presence of monocultures.

Currently, the core issue lies in the energy-climate nexus, where diverse perspectives—political, economic, cultural, and scientific—and scales, from local to global, intertwine in a complex web that is difficult to unravel.

It is within this context that La escritura de las piedras situates itself, with the belief that research through artistic practices can expand the field of study regarding the energy model transition and its effects on the territory. This expansion allows for reflection on the political and economic interests driving the transition, the trust in technology as a solution to environmental issues, the opposition certain renewable energies provoke among climate-conscious groups, the impact of this paradigm shift on regional identities, and our capacity to broaden the imagination.

Acknowledgments

José Joaquín Parra Bañon; Special thanks to the Paleobotany Classroom in Fabero, particularly Joaquín, Titín, and Jose; the Fundación Cerezales Antonino y Cinia; and the research group Humanities of Energy: Energy and Sociocultural Imaginaries between the Industrial Revolution and the Eco-social Crisis, especially Jaime Vindel, Emilio Santiago, Bárbara Fluxá, Santiago Morilla, and Coco Moya.