Arabel Lebrusan

On January 25, 2019, a dam collapsed at the Córrego do Feijão iron ore mine in Minas Gerais, Brazil. This catastrophe unleashed a massive wave of 12 million cubic meters of tailings, rushing downhill at 120 km/h, devastating the surrounding area. The wave wiped out the forest, the mine’s facilities, including the loading station and administrative buildings, and even the cafeteria where workers were having lunch. The tragedy claimed the lives of 272 people, including a mother and her unborn child.

In response, Lebrusan turned to drawing, sculpture, performance and installation as ways of processing grief and bearing witness to ecological catastrophe from a distance. The body of work titled Toxic Waves emerged from this process.

In 2021, Lebrusan embarked on a Research Fellowship at the Centre for Spatial, Environmental and Cultural Politics, University of Brighton. The fellowship deepened her engagement with extractivism, ecofeminism, and ecological grief, and with the question of whether art can bring us closer to social and ecological tragedies occurring far from our immediate surroundings. The fellowship drew on Jane Bennett’s concept of vibrant matter and the idea that handling materials can unlock the narratives embedded within them.

Toxic Waves is an ongoing body of work that has opened Lebrusan’s practice to sustained questions around extractivism, ecofeminism and social history.