Nature and Colonialism

Artists Laura Huertas Millán and Sarker Protick, winners of the After Nature Prize, explore how colonial legacies continue to shape our relationship with nature.

Cover Photo by Sarker Protick

Sarker Protick's project "অঙ্গার . Awngar" calls attention to the enduring legacy of colonization in Bengal, a region including Bangladesh and parts of India. His project examines colonial infrastructure, focusing on the nineteenth-century establishment of a train network, and the coal mining under the British Empire.

Laura Huertas Millán's "Curanderxs" reimagines the colonial history of the coca plant and its western exploitation through film, archival material and immersive installations. In her films, she employs fiction to address historical gaps, creating a speculative narrative of women secretly distributing coca leaves as the Spanish prohibited it during Latin America's colonization.

The exhibitions “Awngar” and "Curanderxs" are on view at C/O Berli n until January 22, 2025.