Lourenço Soares

Books

hand-painted acrylic on 40 kg cement bags, 2020

Books connects the production of knowledge about nature to the construction practices in urban development by painting covers of fictional encyclopedias and scientific treatises into cement and gypsum bags. The bags represent, on the one side, the necessary technical and bodily labor during construction projects which subjugate nature for the sake of urban growth and, on the other side, they can vaguely serve as a reminder for a wide range of extractivist practices executed by multinational companies. In both dimensions, there would not be the possibility to profit from nature without the knowledge about it. The installation shows clearly one of the relations in which capitalism appropriates nature and highlights how the economy and environment are not separated in the ventures of urban development.

text by Jose Cáceres Mardones for Oops a daisy! (Urban Management Remix)