Alina da Porciúncula Paias
Explorelab
Minas, as in mines: A hauntological approach to the site of disaster
This project responds to the incidence of a disaster; more specifically, the contamination of the Rio Doce valley and the disruption of its cycles after the failure of a tailings dam in 2015, in Minas Gerais, Brazil.
The approach to the site was guided by the theoretical framing of hauntology and its correlated notions, such as ongoingness, contamination, co-constitution and complexity. As a first step, I produced an entanglement map, a textile installation that clarifies some of the complex relationships happening on site. Based on this hinged action-acknowledgement, two interventions were elaborated: the Line of Gift is a system for the movement of people and material that hacks into the existing extractive infrastructure and runs along the river valley; and a node at the Rio Doce associates community-based productive activities to the fabrication of geopolymer concrete building elements using iron ore tailings as a base material.