Lithium counts among the biggest actors in the energetic transition from fossil fuels to supposedly greener energies.
Yet, it is relatively inconspicuous in the public eye. Therefore, my research focused on two of the most important lithium mining plants in the world; the Atacama desert (Chile) and the Salar de Uyuni (Bolivia), in order to understand the processes, the beneficiaries and the sidelined of its extraction and refinement.
As in any place in which people have lived and worked for centuries, a guardian has appeared in Chilean mythology. The Alicanto is a bird that feeds on precious metals and leads miners to death or glory depending on their intentions.
With this mediatory device, I intended to facilitate an interaction with the unseen physicality of lithium extraction, while heeding the alicanto's warning. By putting you in the role of the extractor, the layers of separation from the lithium serve as a reminder that we cannot view a landscape as a disposable resource.