IN NATURA

Repairing is restoring defective, deteriorated or destroyed objects to their normal and well-functioning condition, as well as the act of restoring non-material damage or offense.

The problem arises when the damaged object is the environment. How to establish a value for this asset?What considerations must be taken into account? How do we justify aquantity against an invaluable asset?

The environmental damages are difficult to repair, and sometimes, for example if it is the loss of species, they are irreparable. The principle of reparation for environmental damage, also known as in-nature reparation, requires that the form of reparation is not left to the offended party, but that this option is preferred without prejudice to the costs involved in traditional compensation. The model of economy in todays society, linear and based on the extraction of raw materials, manufacturing and production, distribution and purchase, and finally, waste production, is leading to a sustained deficit of resources. 

In a moment dominated by hyper – consumption, we could ask ourselves questions such as: is the consumer society in time to repair the environmental damage? And if you were, can you do it? Is there the conviction that by repairing the environment we repair ourselves? 

Seeking to answer those questions, the research carried out for this work suggests reflecting on the ambivalent capacity of the human being, as much as to harm, either through massive intervention in the environment, as well as to repair, for example, through the making graphics on paper. 

Therefore, this video-art focuses on the metaphor of defined significant elements, such as Industry – Ecosystem and Community, Energy Sources – Landscape and Person, Loss – Recovery and Consciousness, Repair – Survival and Learning.

——— Ricardo Hernandez