Ignacio Acosta

Ignacio Acosta is a Chilean-born artist and researcher affiliated with the Royal College of Arts (RCA) as a Research Associate. He holds a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow position at Uppsala University’s Centre for Multidisciplinary Studies on Racism (CEMFOR). His work critically examines extractive industries’ impact on ecologies and Indigenous communities, focusing on mining in the Andean glaciers and Sápmi region. Acosta’s practice integrates fieldwork, photography, and collaborative research to visualize environmental justice issues. His PhD work produced the book Copper Geographies (2018), exploring copper’s global commodity chain.

• Education: PhD in Art (University of Brighton, 2016)
• Affiliations: Royal College of Arts, Uppsala University, Global Indigenous Arts Network

Research interests include: territorial resistance against mining, Indigenous knowledge systems, and the intersection of art with environmental activism. Key projects include the AHRC-funded Solid Water, Frozen Time (2021-2024) and the FORMAS-funded Indigenous perspectives on forest fires and climate change (2022-2026). His work has been exhibited globally, including at the Zeppelin Museum, Kunsthalle Oslo, and MAC Santiago.

Acosta’s awards include the ZF Art Foundation Scholarship (2020) and the Hasselblad Foundation Residency (2017-2018). Recent publications include Art and Climate Change (2022) and The Sensorium of the Drone (2023).