Curatorship Opening: From insile to exile. Are we all outsiders? (fourth disagreement)

During the 1990’s, foreign images started entering the until then familiar scene of video, the frontiers between the familiar and the alien started fading, and there awoke a consciousness of a globalized planet and an internationalized humanity. Producers started migrating to other countries, searching for better opportunities and new points of reference for their work. The concept of “foreign” changed. In the past, foreignness was regarded only in territorial terms, based on the binary opposition between the familiar and the remote. Today we are all foreigners, inside or outside our countries. There surfaced what Nestor Canclini calls native foreigners, people who, because of their differences, are displaced in their own countries. Insile, instead of exile, an internal exile who does not qualify as a citizen. This exhibition seeks to confront the most consistent productions of recent Latin American video within this movement of interpenetration of the global and the local, from the viewpoint of a radical internationalization. The exhibition proposes an innovative discussion about what identifies the late 20th and early 21st centuries in human, social and artistic terms, by concentrating on what Latin American artists are doing outside their native countries, and on how those who stayed at home look at and interpret what is happening outside.

VIDEO PROGRAM// FROM INSILE TO EXILE. ARE WE ALL FOREIGNERS?

– program 1 –

I Could Be You Could Be Me – Nela Ochoa (Venezuela/EUA, 2005) – 3’

A performance by the Venezuelan artist Nela Ochoa in Miami, in which she strolls through the streets dressed and made-up as if she were a beggar. She passes out flyers to bystanders in the streets with a mysterious phrase: I Could Be You Could Be Me. No dialogues; texts in English.

Back Again (Aqui de Novo) – Lucas Bambozzi (Brazil, 2002) – 8’

The video dislocates or deterritorializes space: the images look as though they are set in a no man’s land, without any references to any particular geography, as if they, in reality, had been torn directly from an imaginary apparatus. Texts y dialogues in Portuguese and English.

Interventions in Havana – Bari (Brazil/Cuba, 2003) – 7:20’

The group Bjari, mostly known for their interventions in the Sao Paulo night scene as VJ´s had this outrageous time in Cuba doing performances in public places in Havana with posters, chickens and tape painted in the form of zebras. No Dialogues.

Cocais, a Reinvented City (Cocais, a Cidade Reinventada) – Inês Cardoso (Brazil, 2008) – 15’

The absolute foreigner is the crazy one, or he who the society discriminates as such. The Brazilian city of Cocais is an open-air asylum for the crazy. The artist intervenes that place and transforms it into a surrealistic paradise, where there are permanent parties of ecstasy, craziness and freedom. Dialogues in Portuguese with subtitles in English.

A Plenos Pulmões – Patricia Moran (Brazil, 2006) – 15’

The “Minhocão” (la Gran Minhoca) is a disgraceful piece of architecture in São Paulo. It is a viaduct that extends across almost the entire city, under which live a multitude of unemployed, beggars and the indigent. On a daily basis, they are forced to face the hostility of the surrounding inhabitants. Dialogues en Portuguese con subtitles en English.

The Devil under the skin (El diablo en la piel) – Ximena Cuevas (Mexico, 1999) – 5’

In the beginning, the video plays on the creation of artificial tears that are used in commercials. However, the obsession with the artificial drives the main character into a state of dementia and a separation from self.

Uyuni – Andrés Denegri (Argentina/Bolivia, 2005) – 8’

The video has nothing to do with the famous Salar de Uyuni, but with the miserable Bolivian city of Uyuni. Denegri captures the abandon and desolation of the landscape, with images that are truly poetically tragic. Dialogues in Spanish.

– program 2 –

Before Yesterday, Yesterday and Tomorrow (Anteontem, Ontem e Amanhã ) [Anteayer, Ayer y Mañana] – Marie Ange Bordas (Brazil/France, 2002/2003) – 12´

Four refugees from the International Center in Cimade, Massy (France), talk about their past, present and future. They point out the radical changes in their lives. The work is a penetrating gaze into the world of war from the viewpoint of a Brazilian. Dialogues in French with subtitles in English.

White Balance (Balance de blanco ) – François Boucher (Colombia, 2002) – 32’

The work is an effort to uncover the geographies of power and the frontiers of privilege. Images from various sources- from Internet and television- are used to blend with images taken in Manhattan, before and after the September 11 attacks. Dialogues in Spanish.

Fear (Miedo) – Claudia Aravena Abughosh (Chile/Germany, 2007) – 15’

In the upside down world in which we live, what words produce fear? The artist, then living in Germany, constructed a disturbing panorama of contemporary horrors. Dialogues in Spanish

Framed by Curtains – Eder Santos (Brazil/South Korea, 1999) – 11:15’

Through imprecise imagery and the windows of the metro in Hong Kong, we hear profound internal dialogues of people attempting to remake reality and deconstruct the concepts of East/West. Texts in English.

– Program 3 –

On top of It (Arriba de la bola) – Felipe Dulzaides (Cuba/EUA, 2000) – 3’

Cuban performance artist, based on a song from the 90´S by Manuel González Hernández, “Doctor Salsa” (“el Médico de la Salsa”). The song describes how to survive; one must have a pragmatic outlook on life and be aware of everything-like in a game of chance. Dialogues in Spanish

Bojeo – Celia Gonzalez and Yunior Aguiar (Cuba/Trinidad y Tobago, 2006/7) – 8’

Comfortably situated on a beach in Trinidad y Tobago, the two Cuban artists try to make a reservation in a hotel on the coast of Cuba. The problem in Cuba-they are not foreigners. Dialogue in Spanish with subtitles in English.

Rebels of the South (Rebeldes del Sur) – Wilson Diaz (Colombia, 2002) – 11’

A straightforward documentary, without cuts, two musical scores from the group Rebels of the South (Rebeldes del Sur), a group connected to the guerrilla army FARC. The video was shot in an area which no longer exists-the Zone of Distension, which had been ceded by the Colombian government to the FARC between 1999 and 2002. Dialogues in Spanish with subtitles in English.

ValdeZen – Jorge La Ferla (Argentina/Japan, 2001) – 25’

Valdez is a character with false papers and appears in various videos by Jorge La Ferla. En this particular video, he travels to Japan where he encounters the problems an occidental faces when confronted by Japanese Buddhism. Dialogues in Spanish with subtitles in English.

Here is History (Aqui esta la Historia) (Voilà l’Histoire )– Elias Brossoise (Mexico/France, 2006) – 20’

An investigation dealing with the concepts of histrionics, social context and object-event. In this particular case, a testimony about arms trafficking in Kosovo. Dialogue in French with subtitles in Spanish.

– program 4 –

Sound Scope (Sonoroscópio SP) – Kiko Goifman and Rachel Monteiro (Brazil, 2004) – 55’

All the races of the world live together in the city of São Paulo. A singular documentary that shows the blending of races by means of sounds-rhythms (songs, languages) emitted by each peoples, in place of simply their images. The sequences are presented by the musician Livio Tragtemberg, a species of “Man of the Microphone”, in comparison to the “Man with a Camera” by Vertov.

– programa 5 –

Undocumented – Edgar Endress (Chile/Peru, 2005) – 10’

It is the story of an individual who crosses the frontier between Peru and Chile. A Chilean soldier shots and kills him while he is walking near the perimeter number 1 in the Atacama Desert. This event caused renewed tension in an already historically tense relationship between Chile and Peru. Dialogue in Spanish.
Frontiers: Morton Street, Arizona, Calais (Fronteras: Morton Street, Arizona, Calais) – Victor Sira (Venezuela/EUA, 2007) – 27’
Three videos that belong to a bigger project called Points of Entry, about places and people that are on the borders or that are living in exile, like the artist himself.

Rhizome 0667 (Rizoma 0667)– Marcellvs L. (Brazil, 2002) – 9:30’

The Rhizome series is derived from the concept developed by Deleuze y Guttari to create a method of production and distribution of videos. From the standpoint of production, video is not merely a support but a mediating dispositive that generates new experiences. In this case, it is not only about an experience of total exclusion, but also of the demarcations of liberty. No dialogues.

The Eye Land – Cao Guimarães (Brazil/England, 1999) – 11’

From voyage to voyage, country-to-country, we end up without a nation, strangers in every place. When someone does not have an origin, only destiny is left to him. Texts in Portuguese and English.

A-phan-ousia – Maya Watanabe (Peru/Spain, 2008) – 5’

A-phan-ousía come from the Greek word for aphasia, the lose or denial of language, and ousía, the essence of something. Through the well-known process of dubbing in audiovisual, Watanabe utilizes celebrated dialogues from the history of cinema and puts them in the mouth of an actress.
Dialogues in various languages with subtitles in Spanish.

– program 6 –

Tokyo in – Rachel Rosalen (Brazil/Japan, 2004) -14:30’

Eroticism in Tokyo. An eroticism that is constructed with fissures, in the line of the eyes, when the eyes close. What it reveals is an imaginary of the city, a result of the fascination and friction when it comes to difference. Microscopic urban situations viewed by a foreigner. Texts in English

Index_Generator – Marcello Mercado (Argentina/Germany, 2004) – 24’

An experiment in glosolalia (incomprehensible and untranslatable words) in the land where Marx and Engels were born. Something happens between madness, linguistics and politics. Dialogues in foreign languages, no subtitles

Happy 2 – Ryan Oduber (Aruba/Holland, 2004) – 2’

The artist was born in Aruba, Dutch Caribbean, and has lived for many years in Holland. He has a Dutch passport and blood, face and color from the Caribbean. He is considered a foreigner in Holland as in Aruba. No dialogues.

– program 7 –

A Hungarian Passport (Un Passaporte Húngaro) – Sandra Kogut (Brazil/France, 2002) – 71’

The via crucis- a kafkian process of bureaucracy and prohibitions that the artist underwent in order to obtain the Hungarian nationality by right of her grandparents. Exiled in France, Knout tries to make contact with the Hungarian embassy and with the Hungarian police authorities as well as her own family in Brazil in order to try to expediate the process.
Dialogues in Portuguese, French, English, Hungarian and Hebrew with subtitles in English.

– program 8 –

The Gringo (El gringo) – Francis Aÿs (Mexico, 2003) – 4’

In some remote and miserable place in the world, a stranger (gringo) appears as a menacing presence and is attacked by dogs. An impressive exercise in the subjective camera. No dialogues.

Note: Insile refers to a neologism which Arlindo Machado uses in reference to social groups that are native born citizens of a country but exist politically and socially in the shadows of the mainstream.

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Insile in Mexico Border. Boundary of myself.

Araceli Zúñiga

In our new century society, visual enterprises and multiple writings (experimental, of course) are the equivalent of a new printing press and of other books, with their new codes, with their other mediums, naturally Amerindian, Americo-Latin. But, in order to enter the unexplored continent of experimentation –always in search of a visual language of one’s own, in search of our mother tongues (Earth, our mother!)– we must work on the word image, we must decontextualize it from its traditional semiotic reading as means of conferring on it another form and, hence, another meaning. Video art –specifically indigenous, genre video art– represents a radical enterprise of reading and writing, tlacuilas. An emerging writing for today’s art, just as a palimpsest: text upon text, multiple writings upon multiple writings, it has developed and performs as a Mesoamerican codex, in nonlinear, transdisciplinary, multidirectional, multiethnic, countercultural writings: peeved and teasing so as to explore our own feminine voice.

VIDEO PROGRAM//INSILIO* IN MEXICO

Luna Maran (Oaxaca) “Mare”, 11:36´, 2006
“Without Time” (“Sin Tiempo”), 10:23´, 2004
“Connecting” (“Conectando”), 3´, 2004

In the specific case of Mexico, I choose Luna Maran as a reference. She is from Guelatao de Juarez, a Zapotec community in Oaxaca. She coordinates the independent film company Cloud Dune, Bionic Gaze (Nube Duna, Mirada Biónica). I mention her work My Grandmother’s House (La Casa de mi Abuela) that is an experimental re-creation, in her own words, of memories and feelings from her childhood, from her grandmother’s house. This piece is made up of 13 videos, texts, photographs and sound. With Mare, an experimental work, she confronts herself on a journey/road to indigenous Santiago-to the sacred places and to her own mysticism.

Ana Santos (Oaxaca) “Persecuted (“Perseguido”), de Ana Santos, 2007
“Movement” (“Movimiento”), 2006
“Real bad” (“De la Patada”), 2005
“Pinxeles”, 2006
“Mare”, 11:36´, 2006

Ana Santos (San Pedro Tututepec, Oaxaca, 1978) is a visual artist. She is currently interested in the issue of ¨the line”/border since her brother and three cousins crossed it in search of the American Dream. However, for some time this artist had to evade the police in order to leave her artistic statements in the streets. She states, “All of us at some time in our lives are migrants”.

Ana Rosa Duarte (region: Maya) “Rice with Milk”: In Wool U Tial In Kuxtal”, “Arroz Con Leche: In Wool U Tial In Kuxtal”, 53:00´, 1997.

An experimental documentary, analogue video and digital/super 8mm film, Mexico, 1997-2009, 55 min. Rice with Milk is an experimental work, filmed during different times, in which everyday language and oral tradition were examined in order to register the many voices that converge in a narrative “multi-text” dealing with the life of Mayan women- memory, childhood and expectations for the future. It shows the rite of passage of one of the women when she makes her life story public and how instead of alienating her from the other women, on the contrary-it brings her closer to the community and shows the experiences of life that they share. Rice with Milk (Arroz con Leche), with dialogues in Spanish and Mayan.

Teófila Palafox (Oaxaca) “Weaving Ocean and Wind” (“Tejiendo Mar y Viento”), de Teofila Palafox (Ikoods) 1987. Indigenous ikoods from San Mateo del Mar, in the state of Oaxaca. Already an expert weaver and mid-wife, in 1987 she took a film workshop given by the filmmaker Luis Lupone for artisans from his community. The multi-faceted documentary was a result of the workshop. Weaving Ocean and Wind emphasizes the filmic experiences of the women, including the life of an ikoods family and in fact was the first documentary done by Palafox. Her documentaries have been exhibited in a variety of festivals: the Festival International du Film d’Amiens, the Native American Film and Video Festival in New York.

Maira J. Desales (Oaxaca) “Guie' Bigua (cempaxuchitl flower) ”, (“Guie' Bigua (la flor de cempaxuchitl) )”, 13:00 minutes, 2004. Desales, San Blas Atempa. Year of production 2004, Cempaxuchitl flower (La flor de Cempaxuchitl) is the principal character of this video documentary. In the Zapotec town of San Blas they harvest the guie' Bigua which they use to decorate the altars and tombs of the dead during the celebration of Xandu' (Day of the Dead). San Blas Atempa is located in the region of the Istmo de Tehuantepec in the state of Oaxaca.

Turix Collective (region: Maya, Zapotec, Mixteca y Chol) “Turix”, produced by indigenous video artists of diverse ethnic backgrounds: Mayan, Zapotec, Mixtecan, Tzeltal and Chol. The Flights of Turix (Los Vuelos Turix) are video programs produced in the Colectivo Turix workshops that are organized in the Mayan communities in the Yucatan. They are produced and edited to be shared with other Mayan communities in the region.

Curatorship: Arlindo Machadoand Araceli Zúñiga

Oct 3, 2009

21:00

Place: Laboratorio Arte Alameda