[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KrBsOKKglQ[/embedyt]
Petromasculinities and Fossil Fascism: Seminar around ¡Aquí hay petróleo! (There is oil here!)
This seminar expands and deepens the reflections proposed by the exhibition Here There Is Oil!, a project that investigates the historical and contemporary relationships between fossil fuels, forms of power, and imaginaries of desire. On this occasion, the focus shifts toward a theoretical and critical dimension, examining how fossil culture has shaped masculine subjectivities linked to the internal combustion engine and how these persist today under new forms of petromasculinity.
In dialogue with the historical genealogy outlined by the exhibition, the seminar brings together diverse voices from contemporary thought to discuss the persistence and transformations of fossil fascism at a time marked by the global rise of the far right and the urgency of a just and sustainable energy transition. The contributions explore the aesthetic, political, and affective dimensions of fossil cultures, as well as their current manifestations in digital, media, and social contexts.
The seminar featured Gemma Barricarte and Jaime Vindel, curators of the exhibition, alongside editor and writer Layla Martínez and researcher Miriam Valero Cordero, who offer complementary perspectives from curatorial practice, cultural criticism, and academic analysis of contemporary imaginaries.
The discussion is structured around a key question: how are the exaltation of motorized speed—famously proclaimed in Filippo Tommaso Marinetti’s Futurist Manifesto—and contemporary practices such as rolling coal intertwined, whereby certain white, conservative male sectors claim energy excess as a form of identity-based resistance? This critical reading sheds light on the continuities between the imaginaries of progress and domination forged in the twentieth century and the rhetorics of power and masculinity that are resurfacing in response to the current climate crisis.
Through this seminar, Here There Is Oil! extends beyond the exhibition space to create a forum for thought and public debate, articulating a transdisciplinary perspective on the relationships between energy, gender, politics, and visual culture.