Herramientas del Poder (2021)
Performance, 60 min.
Herramientas del Poder, 2021, is a durational performance exploring the tension between servitude and self-liberation. I stand in a gallery wearing all white while I dig inside of my mouth, using one hand at a time, repeating “Patria y Vida” and “Tierra Unida.” Simultaneously excavating and muting a chant of protest. This piece is in response with the peaceful manifestations of J11 and 15N in Cuba, and to my interrogation at the Ministry of Immigration and Foreigners in Havana, May of 2018, after participating in Cuba’s first alternative biennial, 00Bienal de La Habana.
Power uses silence as a tool for social engineering and political unity, threatening a citizen into thinking that complacency provides safety. Lies can last decades and when confronted, authority retorts with pressure to instill terror. Forcing people into a state of vulnerability to become their own oppressor, to become the one that self-censors. What happens when a people can no longer resist liberation?
Returning to one of the four gestures I repeated during my time performing in Tania Bruguera’s Untiled(Havana, 2000) in 2018, I perform an act of self-censorship. Examining silence as a tool structures of power use to oppress independent artists and activists identified as dissidents by the state. Many of whom in Cuba have been routinely disappeared or arrested under fabricated accusations.
“Patria y Vida” is a chant that was born from the song bearing the same name by artist Maykel Castillo Perez (Maykel Obsorbo), in the exact moment when a sea of protestors erupted with his words “Patria y Vida” as he liberated himself from arbitrary detention during the J11 protests.
Herramientas del Poder, 2021, es un performance que explorar la tensión entre la servidumbre y la auto-liberación. Yo me paro en una galeria vestide de blanco mientras excavo dentro de mi boca, usando una mano a la vez, y repito “Patria y Vida,” y “Tierra Unida.” Simultáneamente excavando y silenciando cántos de protesta. Esta obra es en respuesta con las manifestaciones pacificas del J11 y 15N en Cuba, y mi interrogatorio en el Ministerio de Inmigración y Extranjeros en La Habana, el 18 de Mayo, 2018, después de participar en la primera bienal alternativa de Cuba, la 00Bienal de La Habana.
El poder usa el silencio como una herramienta de ingeniería social y unidad política, amenazando a un pueblo haciéndole pensar que la complacencia proporciona seguridad. Las mentiras pueden durar décadas y, cuando se enfrentan, la autoridad responde con presión para infundir terror. Obligando a un pueblo a un estado de vulnerabilidad, convirtiéndo el pueblo en su propio opresor y autocensurador. ¿Pero que ocurre cuando un pueblo ya no puedo resistir la liberación?
“Patria y Vida” nació como un canto de protesta de la canción de Maykel Castillo Perez (Maykel Obsorbo) cuando el se libero de detención arbitraria en las manifestaciones del J11.
Documentation courtesy of Argenis Apolinario
