The Castor platform remains anchored, imposing, in front of the coast of the Ebro i Castelló delta. A decade has passed since the injection of gas into the seabed triggered an avalanche of microseisms, with nearly a thousand earthquakes, which caused panic on the coast. The gas reservoir remains in winter, awaiting its complex dismantling and the definitive sealing of the old oil wells.
The artist Paula Artés (Molins de Rei, 1996) has investigated for five years the environmental, social, economic and political impact of the Castor. His work, full of subtleties and nuances, with surprising maturity, has given rise to an interesting photographic exhibition (Energia submergida).
The exhibition, which opens tomorrow at the artistic space of reference in Terres de l’Ebre, Lo Pati (Amposta), is a critical journey. “Light and stenographers to the abuses of power of the Castor”, it is highlighted.
From the most palpable, the cracks that appeared in dozens of properties on the nearest coast or the impact on marine fauna, to much more subtle aspects and reflections, such as secret meetings and political movements carried out far from the spotlight , in discreet hotels, or the pressure to keep Castor out of the limelight.
The young photographer, moved by the desire to publicly denounce abuses of power, boarded a boat yesterday with a group of journalists to stand in front of the Castor. The one-way journey, of about three hours (twelve miles) from the port of Ràpita (Montsià), allowed us to observe the magnitude of the monster of steel and pipes just half a mile away. It is the border marked by the maritime exclusion zone that Capitania Marítima still maintains around the platform created for gas injection.
With the boat at anchor, reflections of an Artés indignant with a macro energy project of alleged public interest, promoted and favored from Madrid by the PSOE and PP governments with one of the subsidiaries of Florentino Pérez. “I would like the viewer to leave the exhibition engaged, more critical, asking more questions, wanting to question things more”, says the photographer, who lives in Alentorn (Artesa de Segre).
It is not by chance that the marine platform appears only at the end of the photo display. The Beaver emerges at night, like a latent threat. Artés runs away from the evidence, his is a sum of looks at the margin of the journalistic story, far from the media noise unleashed by the earthquakes in the fall of 2013.
“We wanted to create a tour with captivating images from a visual point of view to uncover a hidden reality, which also has to do with the wintering of the Beaver”, highlights Carolina Ciuti, its curator.
The name of Florentino Pérez is not mentioned. His voice does appear in a suggestive sound document, at the last stage of the exhibition. As also echoes in the show the sound warning launched just yesterday from the boat Orenga, which continues to watch, night and day, that no boat crosses the Castor exclusion zone.
