La Sal Utah [Salt, Utah]

La Sal Utah [Salt, Utah]

  • 2018
  • Digital copy. Giclée print on paper (308 g)
  • 90 x 70 cm
  • Cat. F_188
  • Acquired in 2017
By:
Aleix Plademunt

El Proyecto Manhattan es el nombre en clave de un proyecto científico, que se lleva a cabo durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial por los Estados Unidos con ayuda del Reina Unido y Canadá, con el objetivo de desarrollar la primera bomba atómica. Se invierten 2 mil millones de dólares. El proyecto tiene varios centros de investigación. Sólo en la planta de Oak Ridge trabajan alrededor de 45 mil obreros.

Para la investigación, desarrollo y fabricación de la bomba atómica son necesarias enormes cantidades de uranio. Las principales fuentes de suministro provienen del lago Great Bear en Canadá, de la República Democrática del Congo, y de las Rocky Mountains: en Colorado y Utah.

En la misma región de Katanga, República Democrática del Congo, donde en los años cuarenta se extrae uranio, hoy día se extrae coltán. En la misma región dónde en los años cuarenta se extrae Uranio en Utah y Colorado, es explotada un siglo antes en búsqueda de oro en la llamada Fiebre del Oro.

Captura de pantalla de Google Maps de la explotación minera de La Sal, en Utah, lugar dónde en la década de los cuarenta se extrae el Uranio utilizado para la fabricación de la bomba atómica.

Aleix Plademunt

 
By:
Roberto Díaz
Aleix Plademunt
Girona 1980

Aleix Plademunt initially studied to be a technical engineer at Girona University, but dropped out to take a degree in Photography at the Image Processing and Multimedia Technology Center of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC – Barcelona, 2004); he subsequently completed post-graduate studies in the same subject at the University of the Americas in Puebla (UDLAP) in Mexico (2003-2004). He has been working in this field since 2004, producing series in different places around the world in which, by means of a careful visual construction of the landscape, he reflects on issues related to human beings and the territory on which they leave their mark. This can be seen in the early series entitled Common Spaces (2005), where humans are present geometrically via different elements that focus the image, in contrast to the fluid forms of the landscape into which they are inserted. In other cases, Plademunt himself intervenes in the landscape, as in his Spectators (2006) series, where he places empty stall seats in settings which have been significantly altered by the human hand and where, ironically, no spectator considers the process that may lead to their own self-destruction. In his recent project Almost There (2013), he focuses on the photographic image as a medium that conditions our way of understanding the world and, in turn, has the ability to generate new meanings via an eye that ranges from the micro- to the macro-cosmos. He also co-founded the Ca l’Isidret Edicions publishing house with Juan Diego Valera and Roger Guaus.

Plademunt’s work has been shown in solo shows by the Waltman Gallery (Paris-Miami, 2006, 2013 & 2018) and the New Gallery (Madrid, 2015); and at venues such as the Art Diffusion Centre (Lisbon, 2012) and the Alcobendas Art Centre (Madrid, 2016). He has also taken part in many group exhibitions, mainly at leading centres in Spain such as the Círculo de Bellas Artes (Madrid, 2006, 2008); Caixa Forum (Barcelona and Madrid, 2009-2010); Foto Colectania (Barcelona, 2014); La Casa Encendida (Madrid, 2015); the Botín Foundation (Santander) and Santa Mónica Art Centre (Barcelona, 2017). His various awards and grants include the INJUVE Photography Award (2005), the Botín Foundation Visual Arts Grant (2015) and the PHotoEspaña Best Newcomer Prize (2015)

Roberto Díaz

 
«Itineraries XXII» (Santander, 2017). «(UN)COMMON VALUES. Two Corporate Collections of Contemporary Art», National Bank of Belgium (Brussels, 2022).
Benjamin Weil Itinerarios, Santander, Fundación Botín, 2017. Vv.Aa. Colección Banco de España. Catálogo razonado, Madrid, Banco de España, 2019, Vol. 3.