Representación fotográfica de oposiciones estéticas bello/feo y sublime/trágico en Chaucha (Ecuador) para una concienciación sobre la fragilidad de la naturaleza

Abstract

In Ecuador, various views on mining exploitation coexist, to the extent that both the position in favor and the position against the phenomenon are evident. In this context, starting from our particular environmental point of view, we proposed to raise awareness among the viewer through beautiful/ugly and sublime/tragic aesthetic oppositions of the rural area of the Chaucha parish, in Azuay, to raise citizen awareness about the fragility of nature due to human works. This is how a contemporary photographic visual proposal is handled that leads the viewer to contemplate the two faces of the phenomenon, through a symbolic representation that transcends the fragility and richness that the same territory can harbor. To do this, components such as fragments of valuable minerals extracted from the mine, printed photographs of butterflies intervened with gold leaf, are worked on as an element that symbolizes the potential transformation of beauty into something more lasting, one might say sublime; At the same time, the erosion and consequent territorial deforestation are exposed, with inhospitable scenarios, in which symbols of non-life are handled. An aesthetic experience determined by duplicity is fostered, by the spectator's forced reflection on whether the value of the conservation of nature is greater or that of the conservation of the life that depends on it, in a replay between two symbolic environments by one of which must be decanted.