This article investigates the material footprint of the Anthropocene on the Biscayan coast through the Basque concept of ostu , which connotes both concealment and extractivism. Mobilised both as a theoretical lens and as an empirical device, ostu illuminates how landscapes are simultaneously hidden and exploited, exposing the entangled operations of capital, environment, and collective experience. Employing an embodied cartographic methodology—developed through haptic mapping, magnet-based practices, and collaborative dérives —the study situates Gorrondatxe beach as a site where extractive infrastructures and ecological concealments converge. The analysis advances debates in political geography by linking critical cartography, cognitive mapping, and materialist currents with experimental artistic practices, foregrounding collective agency and embodied spatial knowledge. In doing so, the article contributes to wider discussions on territorial extractivism, Anthropocene landscapes, and the politics of representation, offering a methodological framework that bridges speculative theory with situated practice. The findings demonstrate how cartographic experimentation can reveal the dual processes of extraction and concealment, while opening pathways for collective response to socio-environmental transformations of contemporary landscapes.
Arantzazu Luzarraga (Sat,) studied this question.
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