We Place Life at the Center / Situamos la vida en el centro is a publication that directs dialogue and points of exchange among art, science, and environmental justice in the Americas. The project stems from the work of Los Angeles-based Colombian artist Carolina Caycedo, whose art and activism engage with issues related to water rights, land stewardship, food sovereignty, and just energy transition.
This expansive publication features diverse artworks by Caycedo and collaborators from across the Western Hemisphere. It also highlights the research and ecological and social transition practices of more than 20 affiliated environmental organizations and social movements through poems, essays, and writing by Diana Alexandra Bernal Arias, maria campo, Carolina Caycedo, Mercedes Dorame, Megan Dorame, Carolina Duque Alzate, Arturo Escobar, Joel Garcia, Gwennhael Huesca Reyes, Camila Marambio, Hema'ny Molina Vargas, Pluma Bárbara Moreno, Daniel H. Rey, Lylian Rodriguez, Bárbara Saavedra, Bárbara Santos, Comunidades Sembradoras de Territorios, Aguas y Autonomías (SETAA), Joseph Daniel Valencia, and María Wills Londoño.
We Place Life at the Center / Situamos la vida en el centro accompanies an exhibition and educational platform by the same name, which is organized by the Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College and is presented as part of PST ART: Art & Science Collide, an initiative of Getty. The exhibition was curated by Joseph Valencia with assistance from Nadia Estrada and Gloria Ortega, and ran from September 28, 2024 to March 1, 2025. The exhibition traveled to Museo de Arte Miguel Urrutia in Bogotá from April 3 to July 21, 2025.
Carolina Caycedo is a multidisciplinary artist based in Los Angeles. Her practice and research focus on the future of our shared resources, ecosocial transition, and bio-cultural diversity. Her art installations, performances, videos, sculptures, and artist's books examine complex social and environmental issues and contribute to the construction of environmental and historical memory. She has exhibited internationally and has developed publicly engaged projects in Los Angeles, Mexico City, Bogotá, San Juan, New York, London, and Paris, among others. Caycedo received a 2023 Soros Arts Fellowship and was the 2023-2024 Artist in Residence at the Getty Research Institute. She received an M.F.A. from the University of Southern California and a B.F.A. from Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá.
Joseph Daniel Valencia is Curator at the Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College. A scholar and writer of the contemporary art and politics of the Americas, his projects include We Place Life at the Center / Situamos la vida en el centro (2024-2025), Sonic Terrains in Latinx Art (2022), and Liberate the Bar! Queer Nightlife, Activism, and Spacemaking (2019). He has contributed to international art journals and exhibition publications. He holds an M.A. in Curatorial Practice from the University of Southern California and a B.A. in Art History and Latin American studies from California State University, Fullerton.
