Evening Event: ATRATO by Juan Covelli

Covelli's new digital commission ATRATO traces the environmental and geopolitical entanglements of Colombia's Atrato River, one of the most symbolic waterways in South America. A contested site of memory, extraction and resistance, the river was recognised as a legal entity with conservation rights in a landmark ruling by the Colombian Constitutional Court in 2016.

 

The Atrato River winds through the dense, biodiverse forests of Colombia's Chocó region. Chocó is home to Afro-Colombian and Indigenous communities who rely on the river, yet whose lives have been plagued by heavy mining, illegal logging and exposure to toxic chemicals. Despite the Court's ruling, extractive activities have persisted and the river now exists in a paradoxical state - simultaneously a protected ecosystem and an object of exploitation.

 

The event will feature a screening of ATRATO, followed by a panel discussion with filmmaker Daniela Amaya Rueda (Atrato Envenenao: la huella del mercurio), Director Carlos Guillermo Gómez (Quien Gobierna el Atrato) and Archaeological Historian Jimena Lobo Guerrero Arenas.

 

ATRATO is on display in the V&A Photography Centre's Digital Gallery (Room 99, Meta Media Gallery), until 22 February 2026. The commission is supported by the KHR McNeely Family Foundation, Kevin, Rosemary, and Hannah Rose McNeely. With further support from the Embassy of Colombia to the United Kingdom , as part of the bicentenary celebrations commemorating 200 years of diplomatic relations between Colombia and the  UK.

 

This is a free event.