CLAUDIA JOSKOWICZ (BOLIVIA/ USA)
Claudia Joskowicz (b. 1968, Santa Cruz de la Siera, Bolivia) makes poignant and unsettling video works that form a palimpsest of public and private histories. Blending documentary with fictional narrative, Joskowicz recreates episodes of violence—both latent and eruptive—excavated from Bolivia’s past to reveal hidden traumas and tentatively offer the possibility of catharsis. On the whole, her work addresses the way technology mediates and redefines concepts like history and memory.
Joskowicz received a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Houston, Texas in 1991 and an MFA in studio arts from New York University in 2000.
She lives and works between New York, USA and Santa Cruz, Bolivia.
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www.joskowicz.com
HAY MUERTOS QUE NO HACEN RUIDO [SOME DEAD DON’T MAKE A SOUND]
Theme: Mythology |
Year: 2015 |
Thursday, 3 November 2016 |
Duration (mins): 10:30 |
Claudia Joskowicz’s work looks at history and its repercussions on landscape. In her videos and installations, historic events and personal stories with a historic dimension are revisited and anchored in her native Latin American landscape. On the whole, her work addresses the way technology mediates and redefines concepts like history and memory.
Hay muertos que no hacen ruido [Some Dead Don’t Make a Sound], uses the Mexican legend of the Weeping Woman, ‘La Llorona’, as a metaphor for a nation in mourning.
The Weeping Woman is a broken symbol, a melange of pre-Hispanic myths and various representations of mother goddesses. In its different versions, the legend preserves elements of its indigenous essence and represents time, the road to the underworld, death in the supernatural, and hopelessness in the everyday. Therefore, she is emblematic of the despair of a nation. In the last scene, the voices emerging from the radio deliver the harsh reality of collective mourning as we hear an interview with the parents of the 43 disappeared students of Ayotzinapa.
Registering shots of everyday life of the city of Oaxaca and juxtaposing the mundane with the mystical, this video captures the messy reality of urban life reflected in the media, which used to trivialize it.
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Country: México. Genre: Video Art. Language: Spanish. CREW: Production: LARA 2014, an ASIACITI TRUST Project. Cast: Rosario Ordóñez Fuentes and Christian Rasgado.
Cinematography: Antonio Turok. Camera: Benjamín Cabral. Photography Assistant: Ángel Jara Taboada. Editor: Claudia Joskowicz. Director’s Assistant: Alejandro Reynaud. Production Assistant: Bruno Varela. Grip and Dolly: Gustavo Mora and Fredy Rubio. Music: Stefano Scodanibbio, Canzoniere messicano - Canzone popolare: La llorona, Quartetto Prometeo, EMC NEW 2013. Los Sleepers, Al ritmo de la lluvia, Peerless, 2008. Radio: Radio Plantón, Oaxaca, México, 2006; Ventana Pública: Entervista a padres y estudiantes de Ayotzinapa, www.eskucharadio.com.mx , November 4, 2014
