Atacama / Hamburgo features two large-scale books filled with rare archival materials collected in Chile and Germany. This project explores how nitrate—a mineral taken from Chile’s Atacama Desert—helped shape modern Europe. In the early 20th century, nitrate was extracted by workers in harsh conditions, turned into fertilizer, and used to grow food across Europe. The profits funded the construction of the Chilehaus, a striking brick building in Hamburg, Germany.

Visitors can explore how this desert mineral powered both agriculture and industry, while also seeing the deep social and environmental costs. The Atacama Desert, the driest place on Earth, holds the physical traces of this history—preserved by the absence of rain. The project asks: What does the land remember, and what has the world chosen to forget?

Through images, texts, and materials, this installation connects a global story of labor, architecture, and transformation.