Viendo Voces (Seeing Voices) consists of an installation with sculptures that act as cinematic props; dynamic lighting design; a sound piece; and a choreographed performance work. Museo Experimental El Eco, Mexico City, Mexico. 2022.
This project speculates about possible scenarios in which a new form of politics, unmediated by spoken discourse, might come about. Are there alternative ways of performing politics? How might forms of embodied politics be, and what would they imply? Viendo Voces takes its cue from the non-verbal signals executed by politicians when addressing their audiences. These gestures, bodily inscriptions of sorts, carry unspoken rules that can be socially interpreted (around, for instance, issues of class, gender and ethnicity). This project is an inquiry into new ways of doing and performing politics at a liminal place brought about by the Covid‑19 pandemic. In this way it is an opening at the crossroads of the public realm and the private sphere. The main inspiration for creating this new, gestural language lies in the public interactions of women leaders who have addressed citizens from informal contexts, assuming more casual attitudes, and in the non-spoken languages of demographic groups whose political agency is usually denied. These other forms of complex meaning nurture our attempts to assemble a visual language that may serve as a counterweight to the spectacular and hyper-theatrical nature that characterises politics today.
Each time this performance piece is staged, the choreography changes to embody a new cacophony of gestural quotations in the new setting.
Credits: Performance installation by Maria Isabel Arango. Curated by Fabiola Iza, choreography created in collaboration with Andrea Chirinos, sound design by musician Erin Lang and light design by Faro studio.
Produced with additional support from Patronato de Arte Contemporáneo (PAC), Colección Isabel y Agustín Coppel (CIAC) and ESPAC.