Voluspa Jarpa. Voluspa Jarpa was born in 1971 in Rancagua, Chile, and she currently lives and works in Santiago, Chile.

Transcription

1 Voluspa Jarpa

2 Voluspa Jarpa was born in 1971 in Rancagua, Chile, and she currently lives and works in Santiago, Chile. Her work is based upon a meticulous analysis of political, historical and social documents from Chile and other Latin American countries that she uses to develop a reflection on memory. She explores many aspects of the cultural notion of trauma. Her work might be seen as a subtle and covert examination of History. has participated in many international exhibitions and manifestations including: Sao Paulo s Biennial, Brazil (2014) ; Dislocacion at the Kunstmuseum of Bern, Swirzerland (2009); 8th Biennial of Mercosur, Porto Alegre, Brazil (2011) ; Printemps de Septembre, Les Abattoirs, Toulouse, France (2012) ; 12th Biennial of Istanbul, Turkey (2011). She was short-listed for the Prix Meurice for contemporary art, Paris, France (2014) and she received the Illy Sustain Art Prize during ARCO in Madrid, Spain (2012).

3 En Nuestra Pequeña Región de Por Acá October 20 - November 6, 2014 Archivo de Bogota in collaboration with the Centro de Memoria Historica

4 g e n e r a l p r e s e n tat i o n o f the p ro j e c t has recently found documents produced by legal experts stating that Salvador Allende, the late Chilean president, might not have committed suicide since his body showed gunshot injuries. It goes without saying that this version doesn t correspond to the official annoucement made on the day of the coup d etat in 1973, and to the one then written in the history of Chile. Because the poet was suspected of having been poisoned, Pablo Neruda s corpse was also the object of investigations and it is now alleged that Eduardo Frei, ex-president of Chile, has been poisoned with sarin gas. Similar facts have occurred in Brazil where Joao Goulart, Jocelino Kutbischek and Carlos Lacerda, died three to six months apart in Their disappearance opened the way to the political opposition and led directly to the advent of the Brazilian military regime. In each case, the investigations have started only 40 or 50 years after the facts. The result of these investigations could change the official version of the national history in the concerned countries, and this is why contributing to highlighting those facts seemed crucial to. En Nuestra Pequeña Región de Por Acá s main element is a portrait gallery of major figures of South America who occupied key positions either in the State administration or in religious organizations, and whose deaths have been investigated or are still under investigation because of murder suspicions. The death of each of these men has triggered an upheaval in the political life of their countries, and therefore in the geopolitical order of the region. In a similar way, the cloud of suspicion around those cases has had many consequences on the local population and social relationships, setting up a climate of distrust between different groups of people. The portraits constituting the core of the project are composed of contrasted archival images: on the one hand, digital prints witness the public life and political activities of these historical figures; on the other hand, paintings made after archival documents propose a new interpretation of their violent death and of their funeral. The global installation takes the shape of a historical timeline and a political genealogy of Latin America. The confrontation between these images respond to the idea that the course of history can be changed only by suppressing the leaders that don t fit in a predetermined system or stand in opposition to it. The recent research carried out in the unclassified archives of the CIA (USA) have revealed that many of these crimes were the results of plots involving North American intelligence agencies and appear today as blatant actions of State terrorism. This is why, in addition to the portraits, En Nuestra Pequeña Región de Por Acá includes an installation made of tables on which archival files are made available to the visitors, allowing them to get to the original sources. The third element of the exhibition is the ongoing video project Translation Lessons. Its starting point is a Chilean artist () hiring an English teacher (writer Nicolas Poblete) in order to be intiated to a language she cannot speak and which learning process has always seemed complicated to her. The artist proposes a strategy to her professor: learning English by translating together a series of declassified files from the CIA, following a chronological order. As part of this process, the artist will transcribe and read aloud the documents, and she will be tested on her understanding of the documents. This work will go on for several years, until all the translations have been completed. In order to keep a formal similarity between the various sequences and to highlight the repetitive and traumatic nature of the action, the learning ritual will follow a precise pattern involving to keep the same place and same framing for the shooting, the same light, the same sound recording quality, as well as the same position for both protagonists who will always keep the same clothing style. The video will include different chapters corresponding to every year of work, evidencing s progress in English and thus the improvement of her possibilities to access the information and non-information delivered by the documents. The first chapter is projected in the exhibition. EN NUESTRA PEQUENA REGION DE POR ACA

5 EN NUESTRA PEQUENA REGION DE POR ACA Global exhibition views

6 Portrait Gallery En Nuestra Pequeña Región de Por Acá s main element is a portrait gallery of major Latin American figures, who occupied key positions in the State administration or in religious organizations, and whose deaths have been investigated or are still under investigation because of murder suspicions. The death of each of these men has triggered an upheaval in the political life of their countries, and therefore in the geopolitical order of the region. In a similar way, the cloud of suspicion around those cases has had many consequences on the local population and social relationships, setting up a climate of distrust between different groups of people. These portraits are composed of contrasting archival images: the digital prints witness the public life and political activities of these historical figures and the paintings, made after archival documents, propose a new interpretation of their violent death and of their funeral. The global installation takes the shape of a historical timeline and appears as a political genealogy of Latin America. The confrontation between these images respond to the idea that the course of history can be changed only by suppressing the leaders that stand in opposition to a determined system. EN NUESTRA PEQUENA REGION DE POR ACA Series of paintings Mixed media on vegetal paper, plexiglas Various sizes Series of photographs Digital prints Various sizes

7 EN NUESTRA PEQUENA REGION DE POR ACA Photographs and paintings Top left: René Schneider, commandant in chief, Chile, assassinated in 1970 Bottom left: Pablo Neruda, poet, presidential candidate, dead under suspicious circumstances in 1973 Middle: Orlando Letelier, chancellor, Chile, assassinated in 1976 Top right: Eduardo Frei Montalva, ex-president, Chile, assassinated in 1982 Bottom right: Carlos Prats, vice president, Chile, assassinated in 1976

8 EN NUESTRA PEQUENA REGION DE POR ACA 1 2 Photographs and paintings 1 - Photograph: 22 x 36.7 cm Painting: 61 x 37 cm Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, politician, Nicaragua, assassinated in Photograph: 30.5 x 23.1 cm Painting: 26 x 40 cm Omar Torrijos, president, Panama, dead under suspicious circumstances in 1981

9 1 2 EN NUESTRA PEQUENA REGION DE POR ACA Photographs 1-20 x 15.5 cm Jaime Pardo Leal, presidential candidate, Colombia, assassinated in x 17 cm Carlos Pizarro, guerilla leader, Colombia, assassinated in x 30.5 cm Jaime Roldos, president, Ecuador, dead under suspicious circumstances in x 32,1 cm Salvador Allende, president, Chile, suspicious death, 1973 and Pablo Neruda, poet, presidential candidate, dead under suspicious circumstances in x 24 cm Oscar Romero, archibishop, El Salvador, assassinated in 1980

10 6 EN NUESTRA PEQUENA REGION DE POR ACA 7 Paintings 6-36 x 44 cm Jorge Eliéser Gaitàn 7-40 x 70 cm Juscelino Kubitschek

11 Furniture Three sets of furniture present the archival files of all the cases evoked in the portrait gallery. Not only do they allow the visitor to get to primary sources, they also bear a graphic dimension since most documents are partially blacked out. The cubes are also reminiscent of Donald Judd s minimalist vocabulary. Through this slightly mocking display, the artist attempts to denounce the emptiness of an art practice only concerned with form. Furniture Desk Metal laminated MDF and archival documents 121 x 84 x 76 cm Bookshelf Metal laminated MDF and archival documents 100 x 50 x 100 cm Series of 4 cubes Metal laminated MDF and archival documents 50 x 50 x 50 cm each EN NUESTRA PEQUENA REGION DE POR ACA

12 EN NUESTRA PEQUENA REGION DE POR ACA Furniture Desk Metal laminated MDF and archival documents 121 x 84 x 76 cm

13 EN NUESTRA PEQUENA REGION DE POR ACA Furniture Bookshelf Metal laminated MDF and archival documents 100 x 50 x 100 cm

14 EN NUESTRA PEQUENA REGION DE POR ACA Furniture Series of 4 cubes Metal laminated MDF and archival documents 50 x 50 x 50 cm each

15 Box The box gathers three elements: the records of speeches delivered by the political leaders present on the portrait gallery of the installation, their official portraits and the corresponding pictures of their tragic deaths engraved on sliding aluminium plates and a series of declassified files about US foreign policy in Latin America. The three elements express contradictory information: while the discourses are embedded in utopian enthusiasm, the archival documents reveal the dystopian reality engendered by unsolved deaths. The format of the box itself has an important meaning to Jarpa, referring to the memorable words of a former secret agent who declared to the New York Times in 1998: "Declassifying Pinochet s archives could be the same as opening the Pandora s Box of History". EN NUESTRA PEQUENA REGION DE POR ACA Plexiglas box, wooden stand, engraved aluminum plates, printed documents, sound recordings Approx. 45 x 45 x 85 cm

16 EN NUESTRA PEQUENA REGION DE POR ACA Plexiglas box, wooden stand, engraved aluminum plates, printed documents, sound recordings Approx. 45 x 45 x 85 cm

17 Boards The series of boards is linked to La Biblioteca de la No-Historia ( ), another project for which has fabricated and signed 608 books made after declassified archival documents. In the various venues of the touring exhibition (bookshops, libraries, art spaces), the visitors were allowed to take away the books under one condition: they had to fill in a form to indicate what they were intending to do with it. The writings that can be read on the pannels result from the comments collected by the artist. Through an effect of transparency, the words seem to float on the wall behind the panels, as if they were shadow memories of the project. EN NUESTRA PEQUENA REGION DE POR ACA Print on net fabric, digital projection Variable dimensions

18 1 EN NUESTRA PEQUENA REGION DE POR ACA 2 Print on net fabric, digital projection 1 - Global Installation 2 - Projection of the words in transparency behind the boards Exhibition views

19 Translation Lessons The video Translation Lessons records a process that started several years ago. Voluspa Jarpa hired the novelist Nicolas Poblete to teach her English, a language she does not know, and which learning process has always seemed difficult to her. The artist proposed a strategy to the professor: learning English through the translation of files from the CIA. The act of learning involves the textual transcription of the documents and reading it out loud as well as the comprehension tests about the content of these documents. The video is organized in chapters each one corresponding to a year, allowing the viewer to follow the progress of the artist step by step. Together with her teacher, the viewer witnesses her striving to have access to the information/ non-information contained in the documents. The video evokes the linguistic difficulty that Chilean people faces when wanting to have access to archival materials that directly concern their country. These documents and all those derived from secret political operations do not only deliver specific information but also reflect a political system. EN NUESTRA PEQUENA REGION DE POR ACA Therefore, while taking into account the ideological and symbolic dimensions bore by the English idiom, the video also underlines its hegemonic character. Translation Lessons, 2014 Video Approx. 20 min, color, sound

20 EN NUESTRA PEQUENA REGION DE POR ACA Translation Lessons, 2014 Video Approx. 20 min, color, sound Video still

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