The relationship between human beings and nature is at the heart of her artistic work. Laura Colmenares Guerra speaks out against the environmental damage being perpetrated in the Amazonian forest and explores ways of responding to it and of seeing the world of its indigenous populations. 10.00 a.m. in Bogota. Laura Colmenares Guerra arrives from Montreal, where her installation Ecdysis is being exhibited, and readies herself to venture into the Amazonian forest for her next art project. This downtime in the Colombian city where she was born is the opportunity for a rich discussion by video conference.

Disruptive human activity continues to threaten the Earth’s ecological balances, eradicating biodiversity and our planet’s shared resources. This digital exhibition highlights artists working across diverse media to preserve nature, reveal environmental devastation, and speculate on future life forms. Curator Tina Sauerlaender (peer to space) presents artists Aviv Benn (ISR/UK), Laura Colmenares Guerra (COL/BE), Reiner Maria Matysik (DE), Sarah Oh-Mock (DE), Bianca Shonee Arroyo-Kreimes (CAN), Sabrina Ratté (CAN), Tamiko Thiel and /p (US/DE) in an immersive online exhibition. Echoes from the Future renders current environmental issues visible in virtual reality, inviting audiences into an immersive alternative future for hybrid lifeforms. Echoes From the Future is part of a series of digital exhibitions created through the MacKenzie Art Gallery’s Digital Exhibitions Toolkit and Art Installation Launcher (DETAIL)—a ongoing resource championing the development of art exhibitions for digital platforms.

Over the last two decades, Brussels-based Colombian artist Laura Colmenares Guerra has carried out a consistent body of work in the form of interactive audiovisual installations and live performances. Her work is characterized by a research-based practice that requires long processes and interdisciplinary collaborations, focusing on the difficult relationship between our industrialized societies and the living ecosystems we are a part of. Since 2018, Laura is engaged in a series of artworks exploring the environmental impact of neo-liberal extractivist practices in the Amazon basin. Niio is proud to present a series of videos from this recent work, that illustrate her conceptual and aesthetic approach to this subject. In this exclusive interview, the artist elaborates on the production of the Rios Trilogy and the key elements of her artistic practice.