Original article: «Contar el mar(itorio)»: Huellas de la explotación industrial salmonera llegan abordadas por el arte a Valparaíso

«Contar el Mar(itorio)»: Artistic Exploration of Salmon Farming’s Impact in Valparaíso

The title of the exhibition «Contar el mar(itorio)» embodies a verb: to tell, narrate, showcase, delve, and expose.

This initiative was led by visual artist Viviana Silva Flores, who, after receiving funding from the National Fund for Cultural Development and the Arts for 2024, traveled to the Los Lagos Region, particularly to the Chiloé Archipelago, to conduct artistic research on the consequences and impacts of aquaculture in the area, focusing on salmon farming and shellfish cultivation.

In collaboration with the local residents, she created an oral, audiovisual, and artistic archive documenting this process. The Valparaíso community will have the opportunity to explore this material starting October 3, when the exhibition opens at the citys Cultural Park.

«Contar el mar(itorio)» features a contemporary installation that combines image-motion, sound, and material. At its core is a video mapping device projected onto a scale model resembling a salmon farming cage, constructed from acrylic modules that hold water.

Additionally, the exhibition includes photographs, drawings, informational diagrams, testimonies from specialists, activists, and local residents, as well as objects collected from the environment.

«I have worked on the ground for years, dialoguing with communities, specialists, workers, and former employees of the industry because I want the artwork to think alongside them, from a dialogical rather than observational position,» the artist explained.

Together, these materials create an interdisciplinary archive of the mar(itorio) that assembles fragments of memory, evidence, and experience to foster critical reflection, grounded in sensitivity, on environmental degradation and transformations of the maritime and sociocultural landscape.  

Art as a Window into a Socio-Environmental Issue

As Viviana Silva Flores recounts, her engagement with the Chiloé Archipelago arises from the understanding that «choosing a territory for work carries a political component. I need to be invested in its history, rather a particular history rather than just a general context, and that history must be intertwined with a socio-political trigger that makes it essential to address.»

With a degree from the University of Chile and a Doctorate in Fine Arts from the Complutense University of Madrid, the artist delves into the experience of salmon farming in this territory, after which she plans to explore what has occurred in Aysén as a second phase of her artistic research.

Both experiences are preceded by earlier works such as Pescando Incertezas (2016) and Cruzar el paso… (2018).

«What happens is that, in Contar el mar(itorio), it is decisively a piece focused on the problems of this industry that amplifies and expands on what was previously created. This is coupled with an emotional component linked to my relationship with the Chiloé Archipelago,» she states.

This connection was also evident as this exhibition was previously staged at the XVII Regional Exhibition of Contemporary Art at the Modern Art Museum of Chiloé in Castro, 2025.

Event Details 

Contar el mar(itorio) by artist Viviana Silva Flores opens on Saturday, October 3 at 12:00 PM at the Cultural Park of Valparaíso, specifically in the Laboratorio Room.

The exhibition will be available until November 8, 2026 and is suitable for all ages with free admission. It can be visited from Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 AM to 1:30 PM and from 3:30 PM to 6:30 PM.

For more information about this exhibition, visit the artist’s website and follow her on social media.