SACO9 Now or never

THE RESURRECTION OF MATTER | Iván Ávila Quebrada Carrizo is an accident of geography located to the south of Antofagasta.

Route 28, which leads from the city to the Pan-American Highway, passes through the area, and also a railroad whose trains carry copper and other minerals––the fruit of the ceaseless exploitation of the desert.

In between houses and other buildings, the site is host to some abandoned recreation centers, devastated by the sun and wind. It is a wild, rugged place that, until recently, had wetlands and a tiny stream running through it. The different plants and animals that it once sheltered were driven away by an illegal dumping ground that took over the land. Old tires, debris, and domestic trash came to replace nature.

At the beginning of 2017, environmentalist Ramón Zavala decided that he couldn’t wait for the authorities or private businesses to take any action in response to the situation. Without many resources, but full of desire and conviction, he started the Hidden Forest project, reusing the discarded materials to build vegetable boxes, paths, benches, tables, domes and sculptures. Along with his family, friends, and volunteers, he managed to clean up all the trash and debris, and, month by month, grow the size of the area, which now includes libraries, open air meeting rooms and rest places. This process of transformation also succeeded in bringing animals back to the area, especially birds.

Over time, the Hidden Forest has become the standard for rehabilitating natural areas in Antofagasta. For years, SACO has been donating some of the works from its exhibitions to different groups and institutions that reuse the materials, modifying the works before reinstalling them to fit their new venues. That was what happened here.

“The works we received will be turned into something else, they won’t be installed in the way the artist had originally imagined,” says Ramón, as the sun in all its splendor draws close to the horizon rimmed by the Pacific Ocean, bathing the domes and young trees in orange light. He is talking about three pieces from exhibitions in SACO’s ninth edition: Open Circle, by Italian artist Marisa Merlin, Container City, by Belgian artist Simon Van Parys (both part of the collective show Now or Never), and a piece composed of a series of books for the solo show I Demand an Explanation! by Canary Island artist Acaymo S Cuesta.

“The wooden containers that Simon made, for example, are going to be turned into an arbor where we will plant vines that will give shade for someone to sit and read a book, immersed in a work of living art. With Acaymo’s piece, people have a chance to see and feel the folds of the pages of the encyclopedia in order to 210