mirko nikolić - How do we dismantle our connections to extractivism?

The May podcast is a delightful dive into looks at extractivisms through an artist lens. We were joined by mirko nikolić, an artist and post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Culture and Society (IKOS) at Linköping University (LIU). mirko’s work occupies a post-disciplinary space that falls between art and environmental humanities and explores the many entanglements of climate and social justice in areas affected by extractivism and the intense exploitation of ‘natural resources.’ Our conversation went many different places, including how mirko got into this work and extractivisms occurring at the peripheries of southeastern Europe and in the Nordics. mirko’s work roots in the arts, and explores extractivism from the starting point of culture moving toward the environmental humanities and the social sciences. mirko’s work is really rich and interesting and captures place and extractivisms outside of the Latin American context. We look at issues of materiality, consent, just transitions, and the false promises of the Green New Deal/Greenwashing and the coming wave of extractivism on the European continent. If you are interested to engage with more of mirko’s work, mirko joined EXALT in 2020 at our digital symposium, you can check out mirko’s performance at the Symposium on the EXALT YouTube. In addition, ‘arcane of terran reproduction,’ published in both Finnish and English in Mustarinda magazine, is the text which was the base for mirko’s EXALT presentation If you’re interested in learning more about the Right to Say No, you can follow the activity of Yes to Life No to Mining network.