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FZ: We went to the morning march, and in the middle of the show we acted in disguise for the cameras. We are artists, so for us it worked out well... But when we came to the part with Chavez, it all got heavy. We didnít want to feel like a flock being led. We had our errorist autonomy and we left. We prepared for the afternoon march, and that led us into an internal group discussion of the 25 errorists that were there. I took the position that we shouldnít go, as different sources had told us that everything would turn sour that afternoon, and I thought that we could fall at the first turn. We discussed this for three hours and decided that we had a responsibility as an organization. In the end we went, but without the "weapons". Only with pamphlets and handkerchiefs. However, our participation only lasted five minutes, because, as soon as we arrived at the march, the tear gas began and everyone ran. They started to arrest people and we went to look for lawyers, etc.
The next day, four hours before the Summit was due to close and Bush left, we had already done what we had to do and had some free time. So, we went to the beach and spent the time filming a scene for the film Operation Bang: the errorists that come from the water, the bowing errorists, the errorists with a boat, the errorists on the jetties. We had an inflatable boat and a military green Jeep. And, suddenly someone said: "Hey, helicopters pass over here. Letís aim at them." And afterwards an enormous airplane passed over, and there we were on the jetties, aiming. We didnít know it was Air Force One, where Bush was, and that was the errorist error. Two minutes later, from all sides, sirens could be heard, they began to close the beach and a lot of armed police arrived with dogs: "Freeze, freeze, freeze, freeze, freeze." And we had to say: "Itís an error. The guns are made of cardboard" (because the guy said "drop it, drop it, drop it"). And we said: "Weíre actors, weíre shooting a movie", and we showed them a municipal authorization that we had made ourselves, but which worked. All of that is on film. A police officer said: "Whoís in charge?" And one of our colleagues, el Mota, said: "I am", and the two of them went off to negotiate. Our colleague asked: "What was the error?", and the cop told him: "The error is that we had fifty telephone calls, from cell-phones, from the beach, from neighbors, saying that there were picketers aiming guns towards the sky and we had to come". And our colleague said: "But have you never made an error?" All of this was off the cuff. And the guy said: "Sure, the error I made was to become a cop. I wanted to be an actor but they wouldnít let me." They ended up having this big discussion, and many people showed up, with cameras, and then our colleague, like an Evangelist, began to ask the people who were there, one by one: "And you, have you never committed an error?" And a woman said: "I got married in error, honey", and so on, each of them began to have a cathartic moment. Later, the police arrived with the authorization letter and said: "Itís okay. You can carry-on now". And thatís how it ended. The erroist error consisted, in this case, in aiming our guns at Bush in error, they came to stop us in error, and also in error, they let us go, because the letter was a fake. And there we said: this is the heart of the piece, this is the key. And there also our theory of the spect-actor and the actor-cide was born.
LG: That was also possible because the local situation was very heavy. The summit was a spectacle, with police from several countries controlling different areas. The spectacle of Kirchner and Chavez on the one hand, and, on the other, the feeling of absolute control: both of the populist sector, that did a good job of controlling their herd of marching cattle, and the foreign police control, which was very surprising. And the people, who were so crazy that they couldnít distinguish our toy guns from the real thing.
FZ: The elements we chose for the action are: the handkerchief, which is like the Middle Eastern example except it says: "bang, Errorists", the poetic weapons, the pamphlets in different languages — to the point where there were people saying: "Where are they from? There are people from many countries, who speak very differently" — the flag, the placards, and the Jeep. The campaign began at the Obelisk, in Buenos Aires, then at the Chancillery, then in Mar del Plata, and, finally, in 20th December Street, again in Buenos Aires. All of these elements were always appearing, and we added more and more people to the cause. The elements and the image colors were few and couldnít be more, because they didnít materialize.
SGN: All very organic... (Laughs). How does the spect-actor and the actor-cide actually play out? The theateralization that you usually perform places the actors in a virtual, mobile scenario, which is the street, but in the last instance, the scenario is there. How do you dismantle that scenario so that it doesnít comprise a "work" in front of others who do not directly participate?
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