Machines that Judge Us (2018)

Boris Kourtoukov

Sponsor: PNEK, Host: V2_Lab

With ‘El silencio grita’ Benavidez Ortiz’ explores the concept of artivism. Working from the social responsibility of the artist challenging the political discourse through their work. The project inserts the sociopolitical dimension of the Latin America’s public space into the context of the city of Rotterdam through urban interventions exploring the citizen´s response to the problem of gender violence in Argentina. This action aims to juxtapose the realities of both port cities, Buenos Aires and Rotterdam, which represent opposite approaches to the public sphere, the former differs by taking the street as a modern agora to visualize social problems, receiving crowds in their squares during the daily demonstrations , while the latter is highlighted by the green spaces associated with recreation.

By embodying the foundations of contemporary Latin American feminisms, which are characterized by the reinterpretation and resignification of the witch archetype, Benavidez Ortiz exchanges the fire for electricity illuminating the streets with quickly assembled, easily replicated bright devices with text references to events occurring in her country, expressing the lack of rights for women, using low-tech to emphasises high-causes. 

 

This project was developed during a residency as part of a Summer Sessions residency at V2_.