Hurricane Remediation Panel

Description

Panel reflecting upon ‘hurricane’ from Puerto Rican and Caribbean perspectives. The word is used to represent the powerful, reoccurring atmospheric phenomenon on the Atlantic Ocean. But the word comes from the force known as ‘Juracán’ – a force shared between a mythological, religious triad of the Indigenous, Taíno civilisation that lived across the Caribbean, and was thereon almost eradicated during the invasion of the Americas during the XV and XVI centuries. While understanding that the word has evolved into a synonym and metaphor to crises and impending doom, the presenters will address how ‘hurricane’ is part of Puerto Rican life, and of the Caribbean. The presenters—artist Karla Claudio Betancourt, curator Raquel Torres Arzola, biologist Carlos Andrés Rodríguez (representing NGO Para La Naturaleza), and UmArts research fellow Luis Berríos Negrón—will discuss works related to that root mythology and about reforestation. The panel will thereon address Antillean imaginaries, ecosystem functions, riparian zone restorations, and ethnobotanies that extend from the Hurricane. The presentations lead to consider forms and actions that may provide fruitful notions about biodiversity and transhemispheric relations, while nurturing differences between repair and reparations, conservation and mitigation, restoration and remediation. The context is also set to think about reforestation as key form to counter the problematic remnants of colonial memory and to challenge the logic of planetary 'geoengineering', looking to suggest other pathways through which to live-with and transition-away from global warming and climate injustice.  

Panelists

Karla Claudio Betancourt (Artist), Raquel Torres Arzola (Artist & Independent Curator), Carlos Andrés Rodríguez (Herpetologist).

Convened by

Luis Berríos-Negrón (UmArts).

Huracán del norte. Carlos Raquel Rivera. 1955, linoleum. Collection of the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña.

Profiles

Karla Claudio Betancourt is a Puerto Rican artist working primarily in sculpture, illustration, text, photography, and video. Her practice is guided by research on ethnobotany and indigenous mythology, history and plant knowledge. She carries independent and collective investigations under various project names, including "el matojal" and “la recolecta” studying, among others, the potential of local soils and wild plants for food, medicine, and as raw materials for craft or construction. She has collaborated with educators, botanists, chefs, artisans, activists and other artists in the island by facilitating workshops and creating low-cost publications to preserve/disseminate plant knowledge.

Raquel Torres Arzola is an artist, independent curator, and seasoned organiser, conceptualizing, developing, and managing cultural projects, producing art exhibitions and public education events across academic and cultural sectors in Puerto Rico. Skilled in fostering collaborations between private and public institutions, she practices as a cultural lecturer and researcher with deep knowledge of Puerto Rican and Caribbean history, complemented by international experience as a guest editor and peer reviewer in both independent and institutional programs. She was curator for public education at the Museum of Art of Puerto Rico, and is now part of Las Casas de la Selva forest community, and is outreach organiser for the local, women-led recovered woods timber production outfit Puerto Rico Hardwoods.

Carlos Andrés Rodríguez is a Colombian born herpetologist living and working in Puerto Rico. He studied biology at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus under Prof.-Dr. Rafael Joglar. He finished his master's degree in Ecology and Evolution from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, specializing in the natural history and management of the invasive Green Iguana in Puerto Rico. Carlos Andrés has dedicated his professional career working with the conservation of Puerto Rico's endemic amphibians: "Coquies". In parallel to his expertise in herpetology, Carlos Andrés has served the national nongovernmental agency Para la Naturaleza as an Environmental Interpreter, committed to connecting people with nature and its conservation. Carlos Andrés has a great passion for environmental education, and citizen science, while trekking across Puerto Rico's forests and rivers.

Luis Berríos Negrón is a Puerto Rican artist and architect researching the decolonising forms and forces of climate injustice. He currently works as Research Fellow in Art and Architecture at UmArts in partnership with Bildmuseet (2023-2024) and as Associate Professor at the Umeå School of Architecture (UMA). His current research project is 'Tree nurseries, and the remediating of colonial memory' (TBD). It is the continuation to a research residency he titled 'Strata, nurseries, and entrails ' (2021-22) that took place within the ongoing, national post-hurricane reforestation project of Puerto Rico by Para La Naturaleza, and from his PhD dissertation in Art, Technology, and Design from Konstfack & KTH titled 'Breathtaking Greenhouse Parastructures' (Konstfack Collection 2020).

This panel is funded by Umeå Transformation Research Initiative (UTRI).