Los suelos del Peal

The series Los suelos de Peal documents a group of fossils from the Carboniferous Stephanian that appeared in the Gran Corta de Fabero – one of the largest open-cast coal mines in Europe – during its exploitation. Specifically, these are located on the floors of Peal and La Inglesa, enormous sheets of dark stone with a surface area of more than one hectare where the coal was deposited and whose names coincide with those of the companies in charge of the extraction. The drawings marked on the rock reveal a forest consisting mainly of Sigillarias, Dicksonias and Cyatheas that was buried 300 million years ago. Like an anatomy lesson, the wound opened in the territory during mining allows us to look into a remote past that speaks to us of geological time, Earth’s time. At a time of profound transformation in the energy sector, the mine restoration project will soon return this landscape to its previous state and, with it, the soils will once again be covered by nature.

The photographic series Los suelos de Peal documents a space marked symbolic and testimonial value, where the deep time of geology, the effects that dependence on fossil fuels has had on the territory and the processes of environmental restoration that the planet is currently demanding, converge.