S59
16mm single-channel film installation silent, 11 min, loop
A reenactment of non-Western knowledge representations through studio scenes.
16mm single-channel film installation silent, 11 min, loop
A reenactment of non-Western knowledge representations through studio scenes.
S59 explores the representation of knowledge systems beyond Western epistemology. For this project, three types of beliefs, described in colonial texts, including the manuscript “ The extirpation of idolatry in Peru” by the Jesuit Pablo Joseph de Arriaga (1621), have been investigated. As studio scenes, the film rehearses actions on these representations. The first of them is “mal de ojo”, which was brought to America from the West. In Spain since the Middle Ages the evil eye was a disease recognized by official medicine, explained in terms of the humoral theory. According to this belief a person has the capacity to produce damage just by looking at other living and inanimate beings. The second is “la limpia”, which is a rebalancing procedure that comes from the original cultures in America. It seeks to re-harmonize the person with his or her environment, eliminating and expelling from him or her the elements that are causing his or her illness. This procedure is widely used as one of the cures for the“mal de ojo” disease. The third belief is a practice related to repentance and fasting, practised when a couple gives birth to twins; it consists of lying down for ten days until a seed germinates from the parents’ own sweat.