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Regina José Galindo

The Objective






Proyectos Ultravioleta
Guatemala City
September 23, 2017 - January 23, 2018





    
    






The Objective is Regina José Galindo’s first solo exhibition at Proyectos Ultravioleta.





The show opens one week after the end of documenta 14, arguably the most important art exhibition in the world (founded in Kassel, Germany, in 1955), and in which Galindo participated for the first time. For documenta 14, the artist produced a new body of work which included performances, videos and photography, which aimed to generate a debate around the relationships between the developed countries that mass produce weapons and the developing countries that consume them.
 Germany is the biggest arms producer in Europe, and fifth in the entire world. It is also the second country which most produces and exports war tanks. On the other hand, Guatemala is considered one of the most violent countries in the world. 15 weapon related deaths are reported on an average day.





Given the interdependent relationship around the production/consumption of arms and given the fact that all of these works have already been presented to a german an international audience, during the documenta 14 in Kassel, The Objective aims to share this full body of work with a Guatemalan audience.





The exhibition includes 13 photographs of Presence(Presencia), a project realized by Galindo for which she conducted investigative work to uncover and better understand the circumstances behind the violent murders of 13 victims of feminicide in Guatemala. After naming each victim by her name, and shedding light on their individual stories, Galindo would wear a dress from each of them for two hours, channeling their energy. Eleven of these performances took place in Guatemala, one in Athens as part of documenta 14, and one in Spain. Additionally, the exhibition includes two large format photographs and a video for The Shadow (La sombra), an action that saw the artist physically exhaust her body after being chased by a Leopard (a classic German war tank) in a derelict field in the outsides of Berlin.





 Also, this exhibition includes five photographs and a video of The Objective (El objetivo), the work that gives title to this exhibition, which serves as documentation of the performance and installation of the work as it occurred in Kassel. During the activation of the work, spectators would walk into a room which housed another room inside of it. In each corner of that makeshift room, hanging, was a G36 German rifle pointing towards its interior, directly at the artist who stood, unfazed in the center of the room. The spectators had to take hold of the rifle itself, and look at her through the scope, in order to appreciate the performance.





Lastly, and as a close to this body of work, the artist has bought a weapon in Guatemala’s black market, which she will intervene. In a country where there are more than 500 murders per month, and where over two million bullets are sold per year, this shouldn’t be such a difficult task. After just two calls, and a bit over 4,000 quetzales (roughly $550 USD). In that process, she spoke with artist Jorge de León, who was also conducting research around violence and weapons in Guatemala, after the gun-related murder of his nephew a few months ago. Since this tragic event, Jorge has begun to buy bullets and take them off the market. According to de León, each bullet is one life. Regina and Jorge have decided to collaborate. Regina wishes to erase the gun’s ownership records and Jorge seeks to make it disappear. They have called this collaboration Unlawful Association, and they will present it live in Proyectos Ultravioleta’s space during the opening of the exhibition.

            

            

                                    Other exhibitions by Regina José Galindo at Proyectos Ultravioleta: