Strength , interdisciplinary performance, 2005
Emilio Santisteban
Latin American performance artist
Interdisciplinary performance project, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, 2005.
For two weeks, I conducted video interviews with Santa Cruz parliamentarians and citizens who passed through the city's main plaza. This plaza houses the Prefecture (the departmental government), the Parliamentary Brigade (the central office of the parliamentarians representing the Department of Santa Cruz), the headquarters of the citizen movement that articulates the main Santa Cruz autonomist initiatives, and the Santa Cruz House of Culture, the space where I carried out the installation-action. These interviews—which addressed the problem of Santa Cruz autonomy, racism, economic interests, and other aspects related to this problem —were edited into video so that only the answers to the questions could be seen and heard, grouped in sequence (ordered by question, not by interviewee).
On two televisions, placed opposite each other at the far ends of a long table, the resulting video was played, offset in time between the two televisions and at a very high volume.
Under the table, like a carpet and marked territory, stripes representing the Bolivian flag on one side and the Santa Cruz de la Sierra flag on the other, and on said carpet, sitting opposite each other, two volunteers stared into each other's eyes, without speaking, for two days, working six-hour shifts each.
Both volunteers, one from La Paz ("colla") and the other from Santa Cruz ("camba"), were instructed not to leave, go to the bathroom, eat, stand up, speak, or engage in any other activity other than sustained eye contact unless they initiated an exchange of ideas regarding the topics presented on television. They chose to remain motionless and silent for the twelve hours that elapsed over two days.
The action refers both to the forces that unite Bolivia into a single republic, as well as to those forces that separate them, to the positive forces that needed to be conjured up to set in motion the harmonious and sustainable development of its people, and to the negative forces that maintain tension and inaction.
Shortly after this performance, the electoral process took place that led to the first election of the indigenous Evo Morales as President of the Republic of Bolivia.
