Nitrato - Xavier Ribas

This project explores the histories and legacies of British investment in Chilean nitrate mines from the late nineteenth to early twentieth century and involvement in its global trafficking. Through an examination of sites, artefacts and images, the project will trace nitrate’s route from natural mineral state processed in the oficinas (works) of the Atacama desert, to transported commodity and stock market value to become, ultimately, part of the material and symbolic heritage of London mansions and estates in the capital’s surrounding countryside. It undertakes new audio and visual documentation of geographically disparate but historically connected landscapes, of remote nitrate fields and metropolitan financial districts, accompanied by an analysis of their material culture and interpretation of both images and texts archived in national, regional and local institutions.