We were delighted to discover that this year’s Chilean pavilion in the London Design Biennial was designed by a former Designer in Residence, Mále Uribe.
Her project at the Design Museum, developed in 2019, focused on the extractive processes around minerals located in the Atacama desert in Chile, and the installation in Somerset House is, she informed us, ‘a direct evolution of my work at the Design Museum.’
The new project for the London Design Biennial, titled Minerasophia: Underground Cycles, was developed in collaboration with another Chilean designer, Constanza Gaggero. Together, they brought Uribe’s interest in the material and cultural significance of Chilean minerals into an evocative installation, comprising sound, projection, processed minerals, mining tailings and discards, as well as semiprecious stones and lithium salts. The processing and production of the objects on display in London was shared between Uribe and Gaggero and local artisans and gold miners, and these were presented as a constellation of objects and materials that appeared equally precious and mysterious, despite their origins and the economic value usually ascribed to them.
Uribe described her installation at the Design Museum ‘as an immersive museographic experience that encouraged me to continue developing spatial and visual strategies to communicate hidden narratives about our relationship with mineral resources and extractive practices.’ This line of thinking is evident in Minerasophia, with its combination of display cases, large-scale graphics and projection. Uribe’s work has continued to have a presence within the Design Museum programme, in the form of a work that is part of the touring exhibition Material Tales, so revisiting her practice at the London Design Biennial (open until 29 June) has been a welcome reunion.
