As a mining country, Chile is the world’s largest producer and exporter of copper, following a long ancestral and contemporary history extracting various minerals, from nitrates and lithium to gold and silver, among many others. Its unique geological morphology, shaped by the presence of the Andes Mountains, makes it a territory with unusual and diverse mineral formations. This mineral richness has profoundly shaped the country’s culture, history and nature, resulting in an intense and rapid transformation of the landscape that accumulates different forms of mining waste, tailings, and displaced materials that present an urgent threat for the environment and local communities.

At the same time, this rich territory has given rise to remarkable local cultures and crafts, where family generations have passed down the knowledge of working with stones, minerals and craftsmanship, many of which have been lost or forgotten within large mining industries and new techno-cultural transformations.

As a concentric multimedia installation, 'Underground Cycles' re-signifies these forgotten matters and cultures, rescuing the agency and original heritage of processed or discarded minerals as autonomous and transformative entities—reminding us that value can be a cultural construct. By establishing intersections with the mining sector, small-scale miners (pirquineros) and the artisanal heritage of local quarries and stonemasons, the pavilion opens a new cycle and media language of local mineral wisdoms.