Connecting people through art 

The archetype of the mythical “Cockaigne” has witnessed the self-transformation of referents throughout its own history, which have erected an ideal of an abundant and promised land in the West, and in turn have dictated a model of aspirational greatness, dating back to the beginning of the 16th century, accompanying the emergence of the very idea of the republic. A utopian record of the ideal and developed country has been maintained over time, consolidating contemporary post-neoliberal contexts and developmental models that understand the accumulation of capital and the consecutive extraction of natural resources as progress.

​

revisits the archetype of an exuberant and paradisiacal land, transgressing the popular game of colonial times, known in the South American region as "cucaña" or "paloencebado". A tall balsa tree trunk, endemic to the subtropical jungles of Ecuador, has been cut down and from it, they suspend, in the middle of an Amazonian forest, containers containing local fossil fuels. The image of the light but strong trunk (the lightest of its kind) is the playful vehicle that supports and hangs the "trophies" of modern progress.

​

The energy paradigm fed the emancipatory dreams of modern societies; Adrián Balseca's artistic work opposes the momentum of accumulation and individualism of late capitalism, other ways of being in the world that include solidarity, collectivism, materiality and questioning wealth as a form of power based on the extraction of fossil fuels.