Nature and culture: continuities and differences

28 APR / 12:30H

Activity in Salas
Free admission with prior withdrawal of invitation, until full capacity is reached.

Álvaro Laiz comes from the world of journalism and photojournalism. In his photographs he emphasizes this documentary character but, as he himself says, he feels closely linked to anthropology and ethnography through his work as a photographer. In this sense, much of his work has dealt with the relationship between nature and culture, which has led him to become a National Geographic fellow this year.

This anthropological and ethnographic character can be seen in his interest in going to the most remote communities: Uganda (Future Plans 2009-2010), the Mongolian periphery (Transmongolian 2010-2012), the Venezuelan jungle (Wonderland 2012-2014), the Russian East (The Hunter 2014-2017) or the Bering Strait (The Edge, 2017) in order to delve into their ancestral cultures.

The time he devotes to each project is a good example of the rigor of his research on these communities, their history, their people, their work, their beliefs and their rituals.

His images are an invitation to reflect on what nature and culture are. Hunters, indigenous people, miners, percebeiros struggle to survive against nature but also against a culture increasingly mediated by technology that threatens to wipe them out.

In this way, Laiz has a deeper intention: to raise awareness about the different situations he represents, whether they are situations of exclusion, migration, poverty or violence.

As he himself states, he wants his photographs to shake our brains for at least a second. In this way, his works return our gaze and make us wonder about ourselves, about our personal and social identity.

Participating in this edition of Confluencias:

Antonio Moreno

Professor of Economic History in the Faculty of Economics at the University of Navarra. He has worked on topics related to Historical Demography and Family History. He is currently working on a project about the historical origin of the kinship system in the West.

Alejandro Martinez

He teaches Anthropology in different degrees. He teaches Anthropology in different degrees and Critical Thinking in the degree of Philosophy, Politics and Economics of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters.

Ana Villarroya

Professor of the Department of Environmental Biology of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Navarra. She is part of BiBos 6.0(www.bienestarybosques.com), a project sponsored by Obra Social la Caixa and Fundación Caja Navarra.