Artwork
Untitled (Como una Antorcha, 1′18″)
Materials: four elements of red fabric framed on glass (50 x 70 cm each), one includes a testimony embroidering on red fabric. Total dimension 50 x 280 cm.
“As you can imagine, having this disease and living in prison is not very pleasant. Well, for everything: for hygiene, for treatment, for the constant tension. And then, we are seeing issues like the famous Article 60, where those of us who are sick are released based on this article, but when we no longer have the strength even to walk. That is to say, they put us on the street when we are half dead”
These words are the transcription of an aural testimony from an incarcerated person found while searching sound in archives. The testimony was discovered on a videotape, and it was part of a sound installation produced by collective The Carrying Society in 1994. The installation, entitled "Como una Antorcha, Espacios Sonoros," (1994-1995) contains 30 hours of testimony from incarcerated people in Spain. In 2022, I found these on-minute audio testimony on a video tape in the archive of the cultural institution Tabakalera (San Sebastian). The other twenty-nine hours of sonic testimonies and voices of other incarcerated people remain lost. The embroidery translates the sound of voices into text with red thread on red fabric.
This artwork has been produced in the context of a practice-based PhD in Fine Arts at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, as part of an artistic research funded funded by “la caixa” foundation.
RED reminds me of solitude, Instinct#17
26.11.2024 - 01.12.2024
WeAreVillage
Kurfürstenstraße 31/32
10785 Berlin