Pablo Paniagua

Translated from Spanish by Jocelyn Montalban

Pablo Paniagua is an artist, teacher, and researcher born and raised in Chubut, Patagonia, Argentina, and currently based in Buenos Aires. He holds a Masters in Combined Artistic Languages by the National University of the Arts. He is a Professor of visual arts and guitar. Since 2023, he has been part of the “Geoaffects: Interwoven Graphics, Human Translations” research team directed by Dr. Marcela Marin at the National University of Córdoba. Since 2018, he is also a member of the “Living Body, Politics, and the Intersection of Languages in Argentina from the 1980s to the Present” project directed by Alfredo Rosenbaum at the National University of the Arts in Buenos Aires.

Artist’s statement

In Chubut, local communities have been resisting the arrival of large-scale mining for over 20 years. Regardless, political pressures and multinational mining companies continue to push for the exploitation of our common resources. Chubut is a Patagonian province with scarce aquifers and a high percentage of desertic areas. The Chubut River is its main river, running through the province from the Andean Cordillera to the mouth of the Atlantic Ocean. If large-scale mining operations are allowed to proceed, they would use and contaminate the river, endangering its complex and vast ecosystem.

My work involves visual, sonic, and bodily practices related to specific territories and its respective ecosystemic issues. Through sound cartography, field recordings, sound processing, acousmatic pieces, sound documentaries, and free improvisation performance, I find elements that not just represent the land but evoke them from a sonic perspective. My research is based on field recordings from diverse territories as well as testimonies from both human and non-human sources, always making sure to reference them, avoiding extractive practices, which are common in the research tradition.

You are invited to enjoy the performance “Sacred Noise” ↴

"Sacred river"

This is an improvised performance based on field recordings of the Chubut River, a curated guitar with objects found along the river shores, and sound processing. In ancient times, the sounds of volcanic eruptions, thunder, or storms were considered manifestations of the gods. According to M. Schafer, this idea can also be applied to sounds with strong social significance (a church bell, a factory, etc.). I believe that in the province of Chubut, the sound of its main river, within the current context of the ongoing conflict over water protection against the threat of megamining, can undoubtedly (and once again) be considered a sacred sound. 

In an attempt to evoke the river, the beings that coexist with it, and the struggles taking place in the region, I began working with soundscape recordings from across the river’s entire length, along with testimonies from members of local councils. The objects found along the riverbanks –discarded trash abandoned by people, and carried by the river or the wind– are elements that reveal another layer of meaning of the issues that surround the river and its environment. In addition to serving as witnesses of the human activity within the Chubut landscape, these objects also function as actors. According to Bruno Latour, an actant can be a non-human source of action, something capable of doing things, and producing effects. It is any entity that is able to modify another entity, and there is a proof. These objects contribute with their material vitality to this kind of performative gesture. 

“Sacred river” (Sacred noise) condenses a research process spanning a little over three years, that would not have been possible without a scholarship from the National University of the Arts, awarded in 2021. The performance took place at the Museo del Hambre (C.A.B.A.) in 2023. The video recording is part of my thesis for the MA in Combined Artistic Languages at the National University of the Arts.

Interact with the soundscape map ↴

This is not a… Chubut River

This is an archive of images, testimonies, and a sound map of the Chubut River, created in collaboration with local communities, the anti-large-scale-mining organizations, and experts on the subject. This work is part of the archive Usted No Está Aquí (You are not here), a collection of sound maps of Latin America, edited by Giorgina Canifrú.

Website hosted by    || Indigenous Environmental Network

Webstite Artwork by || Achu Kantule