PhotoSaintGermain-Maximiliano Tineo, El Rey Blanco

Maximiliano Tineo, El Rey Blanco

An ancient colonial legend from the sixteenth century originating in South America, "The White King and the Silver Mountain", promised that by traveling up a great river in the south of the continent, one would reach the kingdom of a monarch ruling from a mountain entirely made of silver. This tale would mark the beginning of a race to deplete the continent's resources for the benefit of foreign interests. The river was none other than the Río de la Plata, Argentina. The legendary mountain was Mount Potosí – a triangular mound known as one of the largest silver deposits in history, drained of its resources during the Spanish occupation. Today, 500 years later, this same race to exploit resources continues in another triangular form: the Lithium Triangle, bounded by Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile, an area that holds over 65% of the world's lithium reserves, commonly called "white gold".

This exhibition takes place within the framework of the PhotoSaintGermain festival. Organized in the heart of Paris, in the iconic Saint‐Germain‐des‐Prés neighborhood, PhotoSaintGermain is an annual festival dedicated to promoting photographic creation.

PhotoSaintGermain offers a free and freely accessible exhibition tour across a selection of museums, cultural centers, galleries, and bookstores on the Left Bank. This tour highlights a sharp and eclectic program designed by associated galleries, as well as several original exhibitions and novel projects imagined and produced by the festival.