Unknown Territories

Unknown Territories is a three-year artistic initiative that embarks on spiritual and geographical journeys across forests in 2025, oceans in 2026, and archipelagos in 2027. It centers on the concept of geographic exploration as a pathway to uncover hidden cultural terrains, from forgotten histories and Indigenous knowledge to practices, rituals and memories entangled with nature.

Can modern humanity still explore the marvelous and the uncanny? Unknown Territories imagines landscapes as repositories of hidden knowledge and diverse cultures, reviving Indigenous cultural practices and reconnecting with nature through reflections on forests, oceans, and archipelagos. The initiative challenges colonial perspectives shaped by extractivist capitalism and opens new interpretations of interconnected relationships with plants, animals, sea dwellers, minerals and other more-than-humans. It envisions alternative futures where miscellaneous cultures and bio- and geo-diversity can coexist.

During the premodern and modern eras, Western imperialists explored vast unknown lands, transforming them into conquered and measured territories. They relegated Indigenous knowledge, beliefs, and rituals to the realms of the "occult," "myth," or "fantasy," inferior to the Western scientific order, pretending to be "rationalist" and "universal". Colonialists, under a mandate to "civilize," framed nature as a wild, untamed resource to be controlled, extracted, and commodified for capitalist gain. This worldview undermined the value of local cultural practices that upheld relationships with diverse ecosystems, framing them as “exotic” or “savage”. 

These cultural, historical, and spiritual trajectories have contributed to contemporary ecological issues: contamination, ravage of local territories, habitat destruction, displaced communities, species extinction, and social injustices tied to exploitation and systemic racism, all of which have disproportionately affected Indigenous communities. Unknown Territories intertwine Indigenous knowledge with a critique of capitalist exploitation, fostering a deeper awareness of conservation, cultural revival, and human-nature relationships.

Each year, the initiative unfolds as a transcultural and multidisciplinary festival featuring audiovisual performances, site-specific artworks, concerts, film screenings, lectures, and exhibitions. Produced in collaboration with local and translocal cultural practitioners, the festival invites audiences to critically examine environmental degradation and extractivism, while nurturing sustainable imaginaries rooted in mutuality, resistance, and resilience.