Video installation [4:49 min]
El Ardid de los inocentes, Factoría Habana, Havana, Cuba [2013]
STATEMENT
A totem is a supernatural object, being, or animal that in mythologies becomes an emblem of the tribe. At the top, characters or objects that indicate the rank or status of the chief of the locality are shown.
The video recreates the story of Cuba’s most expensive cell phone antenna base. Using the voice-over -which governs time-, appropriating the hand-held camera, the subjective vision and with an accidental shot or home video aesthetic, the artist records how a water tank for municipal supply goes through several antagonistic uses until it finds its reason for being, closely related to the uncertain and dispensable in our context. Tótem creates analogies with various governmental processes that, in the same way, work and are easily mutable regardless of the results.
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Video Installation
The verticality of the screen concentrates the image that becomes “claustrophobic” at times, an effect that affirms the situation conveyed by the work. The projection on both sides reveals the two sides of the video and allows the physical circulation of the viewer through all levels of the image.
