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Erika Loana
Erika Loana is a Mexican artist and architect whom I met through her fascinating project Atlas Materia Prima, carried out in collaboration with Gabriela Sisniega. Atlas Materia Prima is a critical research project that addresses the lucrative destruction of landscape for the construction industry. The artists began their research in three locations in Mexico: Chihuahua, Morelos and Mexico City. Since then, the project has expanded to include dozens of other sites, explored using a variety of research tools. A key element of this work is a deep respect for the local context, community and natural resources.​
Architecture is nothing but a place where everything is made of pieces of other places.
Atlas Materia Prima
Stills from video of the project
Erika Loana and Gabriela Sisniega
geological
processes
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Erika is also a committed educator. In her teaching and research, she explores the geological processes that shape our environment at the level of so-called deep time – a scale completely incomparable to the human understanding of time. She encourages careful observation and reflection on the transformations occurring in matter. And although we are not able to see the movement of tectonic plates, the melting of glaciers or the deposition of volcanic ash, we can learn to read the time written in stones, rocks and more broadly - in the landscape.
Atlas Materia Prima
Stills from video of the project
Erika Loana and Gabriela Sisniega
the sedimentation of alluvium and the volcanic ash
The visual material that Erika and I created explores issues that are extremely important and close to my interests, such as geology, ecology, history, ethics and architecture. Most importantly, however, it sensitively and evocatively shows the impact of human activity on the landscape, forcing us to reflect on our relationship to the broadly understood ecosystem.
The connections between architecture and geology permeate almost all of Erika's projects. Mexico, where the artist comes from and lives, is a country of extraordinary geological tensions and layers. This is where 5 tectonic plates meet, causing frequent tectonic movements, and active volcanoes encourage frequent eruptions, which in consequence leads to the formation of igneous rocks. Therefore, Erika's fascination with natural resources - especially rocks and minerals - seems to be a natural consequence of her origins. During the interview for the 3 ELEMENTS project, we discuss the main assumptions of Atlas Materia Prima and focus on the topic of stones, rocks and places of exploitation of natural resources in Mexico.
Atlas Materia Prima
Stills from video of the project
Erika Loana Gabriela Sisniega
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