Load (and Unload) is a group of audiovisual exercises that explores the Chilean socio-political space from an intimate and allegorical perspective. The poetic response of a generation of Chilean visual artists, suspended historically between a conflicting past and a confusing future, involved in the conjuncture from an affective dimension.
Artists include: Juan Cespedes, Felix Lazo, Cristobal Lehyt, Mario Navarro, Macarena Rivas, Francisco Valdes, Joe Villabanca
Juan Cespedes
The Flintstones,1999
video projection, 1min. 30sec.
Click here to see the video
courtesy of the artist
The work of Juan Cespedes is characterized by transgressing and satirizing the characters embeded in contemporary technologies. In this case, Cespedes abstracts images from an episode of The Flinstones to create a subtle and mysterious sequence, when combined with the dialogues and sounds that correspond to the popular cartoon.
Felix Lazo
The Delta, 2002
video, 6min 24 sec
courtesy of artist
Click here to see the video
This video in five scenes corresponds to a study of synchronizing the visual and acoustic perception, by means of abstract images and synthetic sounds, that create a particular atmosphere for each scene and generate a reflection regarding our biological make-up. This tape was created in Flash, with images and audio generated with an instrument of modulated frequencies and implemented in Max/Msp by the author himself.
Dofy and Pililo, 2000
4min 55sec loop
courtesy of artist
These images were taken in the fall, on the shore of Tongoy, a beach located 400 km north of Santiago. This piece contains several minutes in the lives of a pair of stray dogs that nourish themselves at the edge of the ocean with what the sea brings in and with what is left over by the local fisherman. At the end of the sequence, the scene spins and repeats itself in reverse, in a gesture that accentuates the a-temporality of the situation.
Cristobal Lehyt
Cigarette,2002
DVCam, 59 sec
Courtesy of the artist
This video demonstrates how two people can transform a simple exchange in a chance meeting. It is a casual street scene: nowadays, walking through NY is not the same, daily situations have changed and perceived differently, not because of a change of attitude in the population, but rather due to the state of paranoia being fed by the institutional structures.
Mario Navarro
The new ideal line (meteorite),2001
Video NTSC Color, Stereo
1min45sec
courtesy of artist
Click here to see the video
An enigmatic artificial character waits immobile as time elapses. The passing of time is restless, generating a heavy and dense atmosphere. All of a sudden, a large mass of aluminum paper falls from the sky, and crushes the character. A transformation in the cameraís POV with regards the perception of the objects and their volume occurs; from the simulations of human behavior, to the direct presence of an abstract and informal object.
The new ideal line (red-camino), 2001-2002
video color NTSC, stereo sound
6min45sec
courtesy of artist
The protagonist of this video is a character dressed in a red velvet suit and a very long blonde wig, similar to the character of The New Ideal Line (meteorito). In this case, the character runs untiringly through a somewhat dense and humid forest. Different takes show a relentless velocity and the impossibility of finding a "path", a case almost illustrative of the philosophy that articulates the series of The new ideal line.
Macarena Rivas
The Falls of the Artist,1995
Video VHS-NTSC-Color / 1min. 18sec.
courtesy of the artist
Click here to see the video
Rivas registers the collapse a man in different areas of the labor center of Santiago, representing a situation of defeat and public degradation, reminding us of the comedy routines of silent films. A curious sequence which records a character and his briefcase facing the corporate world.
Francisco Valdes
Without Title,2002
video projection loop 14min
courtesy of artist
Reproduction, transformation and obsolescence constitute the central theme of the work by F.J. Valdes, particularly in relation to contemporary media. This piece takes as a principal element the recovery of a black and white 8mm film that describes the industrial process of a sawmill in Oslo, Norway in the 1940ís. Although the footage comes from a very distant source, it suggests the reconfigurations that culture experiments because of technological advances.
Joe Villablanca
Broken Cup,2002
Video clip musical, 3min 30sec
Courtesy of artist
This clip was produced to create a dialogue with the song Taza Rota (Broken Cup), composed and interpreted by the author. In his own words, the descriptions of the actions are as follows: 1. The camera flies through the flowers like a bee. 2. I spit on the camera lens. 3. The camera shows that we are at the National Museum of Arts in Santiago. 4. The camera stays still and I jump into the garden and perform a brief choreography. 5. The choreography ends when I take a drink of milk and spit it out like a fountain. 6. I return to the camera and I draw a diagram of the museum in the sand. 7. The camera tours like a U2 video. 8. I take the carton of milk and water the plants with it. 9. I see one of the flowers through a bottle of coca-cola. 10. A take of the sculpture of Frontis, simulating the sexual relation between Dedalus and Icarus. 11. At the end, the credits, which are stolen from another film.
For more information visit: http://www.freewaves.org
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