Water and Territory: An Art-Science Dialogue, Saturday July 7
June 22, 2018
Water and Territory: An Art-Science Dialogue
with Dr. Sarah Kelly and Ragko
Saturday July 7 | 2 – 4 PM
"Water and Territory: An Art-Science Dialogue" is a presentation by Dr. Sarah Kelly and Ragko. Simultaneously, it is a showing of paintings by Ragko. Conflicts involving hydropower in southern Chile threaten the spiritual territory of the Mapuche-Williche Pueblo. In the talk, Sarah and Ragko will use paintings by Ragko and other graphic materials to foster an interdisciplinary conversation.
Dr. Sarah Kelly, who grew up in Portsmouth and recently finished her dissertation in Geography at the University of Arizona, will present a four-year research collaboration in southern Chile with the Alianza Territorial Puelwillimapu, an ancestral Mapuche-Williche alliance. Ragko, the artist name for Julio Muñoz, is a visiting Williche artist from southern Chile, who recently participated in a short-term residency at Dartmouth College. Together, Ragko and Sarah will describe water as it forms part of spiritual territory, and explain how small hydropower development threatens Mapuche-Williche territory by intervening with water.
Dr. Sarah Kelly attended Portsmouth High School from 1998-2002. During that period, she participated in an exchange program with Portsmouth's sister city in Severodvinsk, Russia, which shaped her trajectory. In 2011, Sarah started masters and doctoral training in Geography at the University of Arizona. Over the last eight years, she has researched issues of water management in the U.S.-Mexico border region and in southern Chile. Her recent ethnographic research addresses hydropower impacts, Indigenous rights, and cartographic practices. Sarah's doctoral research in southern Chile is based in a research relationship with the Alianza Territorial Puelwillimapu, an ancestral Mapuche-Williche alliance. Her dissertation is titled "Articulating Indigenous Rights Amidst Territorial Fragmentation: Small Hydropower Conflicts in the Puelwillimapu, Southern Chile."
Julio Muñoz Uribe (Ragko) holds degrees in Architecture from the Pontificia Universidad Católica in Santiago, and in Fine Arts from the Universidad de Chile.
Ragko practices visual arts through a variety of expressions: drawing, wood sculpting, metallurgy, oil painting, graphic design, and video and photography. His artistic practice expresses territory in its multiple dimensions, for example the territory in dreams. In his work, Ragko explores water as a principle element of life and of culture. He dedicates his time to painting professionally, and to conflict resolution in Williche territory.
