Be dammed

Be Dammed is a research‐based project that explores concepts of flow and containment, particularly looking at the interrelations between the planning and construction of large hydroelectric dams and water reservoirs, and mechanisms of social control. In this thesis I focus on the first hydroelectric to be constructed by a private transnational company in Colombia: El Quimbo Hydroelectric Project in the Magdalena River in Huila, Colombia. This infrastructure is turning a public body of water into a privatized resource; a process of rural, geographical, and ecological corporatization. The extractivism policy of hydroelectric generation goes hand in hand with the militarization of the territory, the displacement of natives, and the consequent fragmentation of ecosystems, communities and local economies. Resistance from native environmentalists takes form in different associations, or collective bodies, conformed by a variety of social groups and communities such as fisherman, academics, farmers, artists, and activists. The body is used as a political tool to hold the ground against displacement and dispossession. To remain in the territory entails a radicalization of the everyday gestures associated to the geography and ecosystems of the river, and to the local sustainable economies, such as fishing. Community initiatives like geo‐choreographies intertwine critical discourse, performance art, theater, political resistance, contemporary dance, clown and circus techniques, striking, road blocking, community kitchens, hiking, and legal actions; developing strategies that intersect social justice and environmental practices with creative, collaborative and aesthetic praxis.