Moving Mountains: Land, Extraction, and the Regimes of Visuality in Global Image Economy

To move a mountain: an old proverb considers this an impossible feat. Only when endowed with supernatural, spiritual qualities can a human accomplish the task of such magnitude. Lima, Peru, 2002: the Belgian Mexican artist Francis Alÿs realizes one of his now most famous projects, When Faith Moves Mountains. Five hundred local volunteers armed with shovels form a single line that ascends an enormous sand dune on the outskirts of the city: their aim is to move the dune, if only by an inch. “Maximum effort, minimum result,” the artist insists.¹ Looking at the dune the day after the event, no one can tell if it has changed. It remains stubbornly fixed in its usual place. We tend to think of a mountain as immutable and unmoving; as a constant feature that will not shift: it is a perennial landmark that orients us in space, just as it...