High latencies #2
Jose Iglesias García-Arenal

Jose Iglesias García-Arenal’s work sits at the intersection of art and environmental activism, exploring the tensions that have been shaping the rural landscape for decades. His work—in the form of films, essays and collaborative projects managed through Plataforma MAL—takes a critical look at the socio-economic and ecological changes affecting regions such as Extremadura. Here, the contrast between pre-industrial traditions such as the rearing of black Merino sheep and the implementation of technical advances symbolises the struggle between a holistic vision of the territory and the impositions of Eurocentric models of progress.

José’s practice addresses issues such as “sacrifice zones”—areas set aside for resource extraction, commodity production, and waste management that have been deemed “unfit for life.” He points out that these areas don’t just transform the land, they also colonise the present, appropriating it from possible futures and generating a sense of anticipatory mourning and emotional burnout in the people who live in these places, which he calls “spectral sacrifice zones.” 

In a country like Spain, where rural areas have historically been subject to dispossession and marginalisation, Jose’s work reveals the ravages of extractivism, from lithium mining to solar panel monocultures. He links these practices to historical processes of conquest, latifundism, and the privatisation of the countryside, while also exploring the ways in which communities resist and seek to build alternatives. 

In this podcast, Jose Iglesias García-Arenal invites us to imagine interstices of possibility where community resistance, historical memories, and art come together to redefine how we inhabit the world. We talk about invented traditions, olive trees, sheep, looms, and the complex interactions between past, present and future.