2023 ACC CONTEXT Walking, Wandering

Regina José Galindo

〈Who Can Erase the Traces? (¿Quién puede borrar las huellas?)〉, 2003.

Performance documentation, single-channel video, color, sound, 37min. 52sec.
Courtesy of the artist.

〈Rivers of People (Ríos de Gente)〉, 2021-2022.

Performance documentation, single-channel video, color, sound, 7min. 10sec, 6min. 41sec.
Courtesy of the artist.

〈The Earth Does Not Hide The Death (La Tierra No Esconde Los Muertos)〉, 2023.

Performance
Commissioned by Asia Culture Center

Who Can Erase the Traces? (¿Quién puede borrar las huellas?)

Regina José Galindo is widely acclaimed for her radical performances against violence and injustice. For the artist, the body is the most powerful medium through which to deliver pressing messages. In her performance Who Can Erase the Traces? the artist walked from the Constitutional Court to the National Culture Palace in Guatemala with a basin full of human blood, and left bloody footprints on the streets. This performance was carried out as a form of resistance against the political situation of the time, when the dictator Efraín Ríos Montt, responsible for the bloody incidents of violence during military dictatorship, ignored the constitutional law and re-ran at the presidential election. The artist left her footprint behind to remember the history of violence and sacrifice that should never be forgotten. The footprints belong to the artist herself who wishes to never forget the historical sacrifices, as well as to the victims she remembers.

Rivers of People (Ríos de Gente)

In another performance, Galindo walked with others. Rivers of People is a collective performance which remembers the river that used to flow but became polluted or dried up due to mining, hydroelectric power plants, and monoculture by multinational companies. The industrialization that devastated the river mobilized Guatemalan natives and exploited resources. More than 1000 participants from local communities, from children to youths and adults, participated in this performance, which took place in various regions throughout the country including Chisec, El Estor, and Champerico. The people, who marched with innocent faces, cried out slogans like “We fight for life!” “We fight for water!” and “Water is not a commodity!” The voices resonate even louder as people walked side by side with each other.

The Earth Does Not Hide The Death (La Tierra No Esconde Los Muertos)

The artist’s new performance in Gwangju, The Earth Does Not Hide The Death (scheduled for Sunday, May 14th) deals with the memory of the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement. The volcanic peaks the artist will make with 12 participants in the Asia Culture Plaza are connected to each other at the foot of the mountain. Through this performance, the artist wishes to remind us of the sacrifices that can never be concealed or denied, even if the sacrifices are not recognized in official numbers or statistics. It reveals the solid, root-like truth, which exists down this road where we take our steps.