Unit / y
2013 - Film & Video (Film & Video)
1:26 minutes
Amapola Prada
In the video Unit/y we see Amapola Prada in the center of the screen wearing an oversized, worn out sweatshirt, socks and flip-flops—standing motionless on a dimly lit street in her native Lima, Peru. As the video progresses, people, stray dogs, and cars pass by unbeknown to her presence, inescapably fulfilling their roles in the everyday. The title of the work gives us a clue. In Spanish, ‘unidad’ can be used to refer to both, a single unit or to the term ‘unity’—the coming together of many. This play on words signals one of the artist’s key concerns: the tension between the individual and the collective, and how our bodies mediate between these contrasting forces. In the case of unit/y, Prada withholds movement to enunciate her presence as an individual in the face of an unfolding cityscape that is perpetually in motion. Unit/y , alongside the works Movement , and Power , forms part of the video triptych Revolution , where Prada investigates ideas commonly associated with the concept of ‘revolution.’ Contrasting the connotations these words carry with archetypal and symbolic situations, Prada proposes a revolution that departs from the body, advocating for “the acceptance of ourselves and our circumstances past and present, without pretenses or glories.”
As the daughter of an actor, Amapola Prada recalls frequently attending the theater as a child and noticing that she never saw herself (her body or reality) represented. On the same vein, during her studies in the field of Social Psychology at university, she noticed the lack of inclusion of non-Western subjectivities—mestizos, Indigenous, migrants among them—and their bodies across all the texts and theories she encountered. Correspondingly, Prada turned to the languages of performance, theater, and video—combining them with her training in Psychology—to investigate, departing from the body, the plethora of meaning that simple movements and actions can contain. Across her performance and video work, Prada proposes that our bodies have been conditioned and carry imprints of discourses that determine race, social class and gender, and predetermine us as individuals. Her actions are attempts to strip our bodies of these preconditions or at least position her own expression as an opposing force to the history of oppression and repression which defines her body and her experience of everyday life in Lima, Peru.
Colors:
Related works sharing similar palette
© » KADIST
Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige
2017Produced for the Prix Marcel Duchamp and presented at the Centre Pompidou in October 2017, the installation Uncomformities is comprised of photographs, archaeological drawings, and narratives, based on the analysis of core samples from different sites in Beirut, Paris and Athens...
© » LENS CULTURE
In Pieces - Photographs by Sophia Bulgakova, Lia Dostlieva, Ola Lanko, Katia Motyleva and Kateryna Snizhko | Book review by Sophie Wright | LensCulture Feature In Pieces In this imaginative collection of photobooks “made with a child in mind,” five artists of Ukrainian descent explore the everyday heroism of life in wartime...
© » 1854 PHOTOGRAPHY
The Desi Boys will show you Kolkata from the streets - 1854 Photography Subscribe latest Agenda Bookshelf Projects Industry Insights magazine Explore ANY ANSWERS FINE ART IN THE STUDIO PARENTHOOD ART & ACTIVISM FOR THE RECORD LANDSCAPE PICTURE THIS CREATIVE BRIEF GENDER & SEXUALITY MIXED MEDIA POWER & EMPOWERMENT DOCUMENTARY HOME & BELONGING ON LOCATION PORTRAITURE DECADE OF CHANGE HUMANITY & TECHNOLOGY OPINION THEN & NOW Explore Stories latest agenda bookshelf projects theme in focus industry insights magazine ANY ANSWERS FINE ART IN THE STUDIO PARENTHOOD ART & ACTIVISM FOR THE RECORD LANDSCAPE PICTURE THIS CREATIVE BRIEF GENDER & SEXUALITY MIXED MEDIA POWER & EMPOWERMENT DOCUMENTARY HOME & BELONGING ON LOCATION PORTRAITURE DECADE OF CHANGE HUMANITY & TECHNOLOGY OPINION THEN & NOW All images from Desi Boys © Soham Gupta Soham Gupta made his name capturing Kolkata’s unseen poor...
© » LONDONIST
Photos Of London From Above At Christmas | Londonist Mesmerising Shots Of London From Above At Christmas By Will Noble Will Noble Mesmerising Shots Of London From Above At Christmas From above, Winter Wonderland look intensely pretty Think you've seen all of London's Christmas lights ? Photographer Jason Hawkes has been up in his helicopter again, this time reporting back with some mesmerising shots of the capital after dark — many capturing 2023's festive illuminations from angles you won't have seen before...
© » KADIST
Kudzanai-Violet Hwami
2019This painting is the direct result of the artist’s research into her roots...
© » THEARTNEWSPER
Missing Mona Lisa: the story behind the 1911 theft of Leonardo’s masterpiece Art market Museums & heritage Exhibitions Books Podcasts Columns Technology Adventures with Van Gogh Search Search Books feature Missing Mona Lisa: the story behind the 1911 theft of Leonardo’s masterpiece The author of a new book tells us why it was stolen and how Picasso got embroiled in the scandal Gareth Harris 6 February 2024 Share A museum worker called Vincenzo Peruggia stole the Mona Lisa in August 1911...
© » KADIST
Chia-Wei Hsu
2012Marshal Tie Jia (Turtle Island) explores the history of a tiny island off of the coast of Matsu in the Taiwan Strait that has been instrumental in the geopolitical relationships between China, Taiwan, and Japan...
© » THEARTNEWSPER
London’s Middle Eastern art sales have defied tensions Art market Museums & heritage Exhibitions Books Podcasts Columns Technology Adventures with Van Gogh Search Search Israel-Hamas war news London’s Middle Eastern art sales have defied tensions Auction purchases by Arab cultural entities overcome early uncertainties of Israel-Hamas war Melissa Gronlund 7 December 2023 Share Samia Halaby’s Seventh Cross No...
© » KQED
The Bay Area's Hottest, Weirdest, Worst and Funniest Trends of 2023 | KQED Skip to Nav Skip to Main Skip to Footer Arts & Culture The Bay Area's Hottest, Weirdest, Worst and Funniest Trends of 2023 Rae Alexandra Alan Chazaro Ugur Dursun Sarah Hotchkiss Olivia Cruz Mayeda Gabe Meline Emma Silvers Luke Tsai Nastia Voynovskaya Dec 8 Save Article Save Article Failed to save article Please try again Facebook Share-FB Twitter Share-Twitter Email Share-Email Copy Link Copy Link Elisheva Samson, 16, shows off her carabiner of friendship bracelets to trade while waiting in line for merch before seeing “Taylor Swift The Eras Tour” at AMC Kabuki in Japantown, San Francisco on Friday, Oct...
© » KADIST
Melvin Moti
2008“The Prisoner’s Cinema” is a phenomenon described in neurology as a hallucination, that appears after a prolonged absence of visual sensations...