En Nuestra Pequeña Región de por Acá – Utopías/ Distopías

Serie lo que ves es lo que es (What you see is what it is Series) are pieces that correspond to the study of declassified archives of the US Intelligence Services during the period 1948-1994 related to North American Minimalism and propose a review of declassified documents on fourteen Latin American countries.

In relation to these archives, this group of works questions the precepts of North American Minimalist art, contrasting the austerity and formal asceticism -proper of that movement- with the political violence of the time in which these aesthetic proposals were developed.

The appropriation and transformation of Donald Judd’s iconic works, structurally, by means of printed strips that formally intervene them and modify their content. In effect, while the great political operations are taking place in Latin American territory, North American artistic and academic institutions are promoting and disseminating minimalist abstraction as their artistic avant- garde.

Yo no soy un hombre, soy un pueblo (I am not a man, I am the people) is a large-format drawing in which the full names of 47 Latin American authorities assassinated or whose deaths are still under investigation are unveiled. Thus is formed this ‘great collective funeral’ that includes the 47 individual images of each public procession. It is the visual similarities that allow them to be organized as a single image, merging different places and moments.

Translation Lessons is the last element of the project and is a reflection on English as a hegemonic language. In it, an English teacher (the writer Nicolás Poblete) teaches the artist the language through the reading of the CIA files on Chile. The film highlights a powerful paradox: to understand a large part of the recent political history of Latin American countries, it is necessary to access it through a foreign language.

Finally, Libro de artista (Artist’s Book) proposes a symbolic transaction with the public: a book for an answer. This book contains the transcription of the speeches of the dead Latin American authorities with emblematic pages on the narrative surrounding the actions of these leaders, referring to both declassified secret archives and judicial files.

Año:
Tipo de Investigación:
exhibición:
Galería Gabriela Mistral

CURATED BY: AGUSTÍN PÉREZ RUBIO

ciudad:
Santiago
país:
Chile
Especificación:
  • Serie lo que ves es lo que es / Judd Inverso (What you see is what it is Series / Judd Inverse)
    Rectangular stainless-steel profile, 11 pieces of red lacquered steel, 8 stainless-steel folders with court files and printed paper strips with CIA files
  • Yo no soy un hombre, soy un pueblo (I am not a man, I am the people)
    Digital print, graphite and ink on polyester paper
  • Algunos estamos amenazados de muerte (Some of us are threatened with death)
    Slide projection and adhesive texts
  • Discursos utópicos Latinoamérica 1947-1994 (Latin American Utopian Speeches 1947- 1994)
    Audio speeches by Latin American political leaders and adhesive text
  • Chile desclasificados (Chile declassified)
    8 black laser cut cardboards
  • 2014-2016
    Translation Lessons
    3 videos
  • Libro de artista (Artist’s book)
    800 books with declassified files, court documents, and transcribed speeches, printed paper roll, and wooden lectern
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