mpenriqu /installation queer-ing asylum

queer-ing asylum

With this installation I argue that trauma is localized on people’s bodies in a very physical way. Therefore, the images of the woman’s body, with the declaration written on it are a powerful visual image. These images are abstracted to a certain degree in that they are disembodied parts. The silhouette of a leg, or a shoulder, the close up of a hand or the side of a breast… This images are dissolved into close ups of different points in the body where stress is usually accumulated (i.e. shoulders, back, arms) and from time to time you can see the woman’s hand massaging this points and dissolving the words previously written on her. You don’t see her face, you only see different parts of her body merging together in slow, fast or normal speed at different intervals narrating poetically stress and release and localization of memories and trauma. One of the videos, the one that is in fast motion, shows violent camera movements in order to portray the violence of the state’s constructions of identity, the current immigrant backlash and racist and colonialist ideas that underline the asylum process.

Along with the videos there are four different Spanish-English bilingual audio sources projected to the viewers/participants at the same time:

1. A voice-over of a narrative about a personal asylum process. This narrative goes back and forth between languages and narrates the experiences of applying for asylum based on “membership in a particular social group” which has been redefined by human rights organizations to include sexual orientation/identity and to refer to LGBT people.

2. A collage of conversations over food or dinner table. Glimpses of people’s voices describing food, tastes, smells, as well as “typical” dinner conversations. Food in this installation is associated with home and community. Memories of food and comfort are located in people’s bodies as well and listening to such conversations can bring the viewer/participant to find comfort in them.

3. The voice of a 2 year old singing and reading a book in Spanish. This voice-image I use as a metaphor for home and for a sense of comfort. In addition, this audio source of a soft and clear voice of a little boy can inspire nostalgia and aims to rap the viewer/participant with questions of belonging.

4. Lastly, this audio source is of a terrible sound, one that is almost unbearable produced by distorted voices. It comes in waves and it follows the rhythm of the third video that uses violent camera moves and its faster moving. The viewer/participant is meant to feel uncomfortable and overall to feel a sense of confusion.

This circular structure in which the viewer is invited to participate runs the videos and audio sources in a cycle. The cycle starts in silence and in the dark and it increases its pace until it reaches an unbearable pace, one that makes your heart run faster; then the video-audio experience decreases its intensity and at the end it becomes almost a breathing exercise that tempts the participant to join in. It ends in a moment of silence and tranquility.

Materials:

• Circular structure materials (wood, cement)
• Video projectors (3) from the ceiling
• Sound system with four different channels

Diagram

Diagram