Dorothee Kimmich contributes her work on “no man’s lands” and the notion of property in the context of colonial history to the project, which touches upon the question of how so called “empty land” was “cultivated” by settlers. Railways represent a very interesting part of how land is discovered, cultivated, appropriated and is part of the transition of nature into “culture”. Often railways are the first steps to convert nature into “no man’s land” and later into property of states or individuals. Her contribution lies on the idea that in order to catalogue, categorize, collect, interpret, and reflect on images and texts about no man’s lands, it is vital to discuss the connection between ownership and non-ownership, between cultivation and property, and colonization and appropriation. The relation between what we call nature and culture is not only an ontological one but also a technical and a political one. Railways are in certain way the “stretches” that define the differences and at the same time the limits that bring both into contact. 

Prof. Dr. Dorothee Kimmich (UT)

“The construction of railway lines, more than a phenomenon of industrial modernity, is also a symbol of its anachronistic temporalities. Trains and their routes displace projections of worlds, traversing and being traversed by narratives. I have been interested in thinking, in this context, about the paradoxes that permeate progress as a promise and ruin as an unavoidable end, indicating Latin American tensions present in life stories and media reports that inhabit territories marked by extractivism. This project has allowed me to take another look at the region where I work – a city very much constrained by mineral extractivism – and, subsequently at Latin America as a whole.”

Prof. Dr. Frederico de Mello Brandão Tavares

“My contribution addressed the scientific aspects of the bioceanic corridor, particularly that of the 19th-century German explorer Rudolph Philippi. Through this project, the naturalist's study was viewed not only as that of a European scientist in an unknown territory, but also from the perspective of how the desert territory transformed Philippi's vision.”

Prof. Dr. Carlos Sanhueza Cerda

“My focus is on the role that railway imaginaries have played as ideals of progress in Latin American literature; I particularly analyze the work Ramal (2011) by the Chilean Cynthia Rimsky, in which she dismantles the idea of ​​modernization associated with the railway by presenting the railway ruins that cross a part of Chile. My research seeks to show that the “failure of progress” in Latin America is inherent to colonial modernity itself, and not an anomaly within the “civilizing project” imposed for five centuries.”

Prof. Dr. Armando Velazquez