The site of Wirikuta, nestled in the heart of a desert valley in Mexico, contains all the ingredients likely to attract Westerners in search of a noble cause and ancestral wisdom. Indians, the Huichol, who fight to preserve this sacred land where, according to their beliefs, the sun was born. Mining industries seeking to profit from the subsoil. A unique biotope in the world, with many species on the verge of extinction. And, finally, a hallucinogenic cactus, peyote, used in rituals.
But after being invited to take part in an Indian ceremony there, the photographer Julien Lombardi found himself immersed in a particularly complex territory, where a number of different actors intersect: Indians, activists, anthropologists, ecologists, industrialists, tourists, peasants… Five years of back and forth between France and Mexico, where he is now based, were necessary for him before being able to present, at the Rencontres d’Arles, an installation in the form of a polyphonic narrative mixing all kinds of images, made by him or by others, which prohibit any simplistic or Manichaean vision. “I tried to show the multiplicity of points of view by delving into the visual memory of the place”he summarizes.
Trained in anthropology, which he abandoned “in favor of more speculative narratives, which the visual arts allow”, Julien Lombardi has however retained the methods of scientific collection, accumulating materials of all kinds which enlighten the actors present. In a disused mine, he found old advertising brochures that present mining as another step in human evolution, promising infinite growth and a bright future, soon with mines on the Moon… “We are not very far from New Space, the current private space conquest”, he remarks. He also reproduced the route of the only passage of the Google Car in the region. Or traced the trail of anthropologists who, influenced by the new age movements, were fascinated by the Indians in the 1970s.
Extractivist capitalism
In Wirikuta, it is actually not two but three visions of the Earth and the world that confront each other. Faced with the Indians who defend a sacred nature, preserved from all human intervention, stand the proponents of extractivist capitalism, often foreign companies that exploit natural resources to profit from them. But there are also the rancherospeasants who practice animal husbandry or extensive agriculture. “If we make the territory a nature reserve, there is a risk that more Mexicans will turn to illegal immigration”notes Julien Lombardi.
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Rencontres d’Arles: the fragmented look of Julien Lombardi on Wirikuta