Los rastreadores

2014 - Film & Video (Film & Video)

23:00 minutes

Claudia Joskowicz


Los rastreadores is a two-channel video by Claudia Joskowicz narrating the story of a fictitious drug lord, Ernesto Suarez, whose character is based on the well-known Bolivian drug dealer, Roberto Suárez. In the video, Suarez returns home from prison and survives a massacre that takes place at his home in Bolivia. Told in four chapters, the story is inspired by John Ford’s American Western classic film The Searchers (1956), this work similarly focuses on the politicized atmosphere of Bolivian history, searching for cues of race and alienation. Bringing together a Nazi officer, a Bolivian drug lord, and indigenous peoples of Bolivia—perceived to be inferior by mestizos and people of European origin—in one story, Joskowicz exposes the hidden power relationships and hierarchies of Bolivia’s history, problematizing race and class.


Claudia Joskowicz is a video and installation artist working at the intersection of landscape, history, and memory. Her works form unsettling scenes that reimagine public and private histories of Latin American individuals and communities. Blurring the line between documentary and fiction, these works often involve violent images to bring traumas to the present, and to offer a moment of catharsis for the ones who were affected by these incidents in some way. In her works, Joskowicz intentionally gives a great amount of power and agency to the camera, reminding the viewer of their passive role in the construction of history. In this way, the artist critiques technology as a medium that easily manipulates one’s interpretation of history, controlling what gets to survive in the public collective memory. As Joskowicz’s camera wanders around the landscape, or focuses on one of the protagonists in her stories, the rest of the scene—and with it, other possible perspectives—fall into the dark, constructing yet another subjective historical narrative. It’s easy to focus on the slow movement of the camera more so than the actual event being recorded, which Joskowicz harnesses to remind her viewers that history is man-made. When texts or events are taken out of their context and technology is present to create an imaginary cinematic space, any narrative is possible.


Colors:



Related works featuring themes of: » Andes Region, » Cinematic, » Collective History, » Conflict  
» see more

Empire's Borders II-Passage
© » KADIST

Chen Chieh-Jen

2010

Empire’s Borders II – Passage and Empire’s Borders II – Workers are from the three-channel film installation Empire’s Borders II – Western Enterprise, Inc...

Empire's Borders II-Workers
© » KADIST

Chen Chieh-Jen

2010

Empire’s Borders II – Passage and Empire’s Borders II – Workers are from the three-channel film installation Empire’s Borders II – Western Enterprise, Inc...

Regard Eating Every Single Time as a Formal Declaration, My Stomach is Sexy out of Anger
© » KADIST

Xiaoyun Chen

2006

The image of rusted nails, nuts and bolts as shrapnel sandwiched between a fried Chicken burger highlights the contrast between decadence and destruction...

Death at a 30 Degree Angle
© » KADIST

Bani Abidi

2012

The perceived effortlessness of power, projecting above experiences of labored subordination is examined in Death at a 30 Degree Angle by Bani Abidi, which funnels this projection of image through the studio of Ram Sutar, renowned in India for his monumental statues of political figures, generally from the post-independence generation...

Other related works, blended automatically  
» see more

Vallegrande 1967
© » KADIST

Claudia Joskowicz

2008

The primary interest in the trilogy is Joskowicz’s use of cinematic space, with long tracking shots that portray resistance to habitual viewing experiences of film and television...

Empire's Borders II-Passage
© » KADIST

Chen Chieh-Jen

2010

Empire’s Borders II – Passage and Empire’s Borders II – Workers are from the three-channel film installation Empire’s Borders II – Western Enterprise, Inc...

Empire's Borders II-Workers
© » KADIST

Chen Chieh-Jen

2010

Empire’s Borders II – Passage and Empire’s Borders II – Workers are from the three-channel film installation Empire’s Borders II – Western Enterprise, Inc...

Bus Logos
© » KADIST

Yto Barrada

2004

In this photographic series, Yto Barrada was interested in the logos of the buses that travel between North Africa and Europe...

Related works sharing similar palette  
» see more

Podcast 106: Boom
© » ARTS EQUATOR

Podcast 106: Boom | ArtsEquator Skip to content In our latest podcast, we discuss Boom, a production by A Mirage which took place on 1-20 July 2022...

Francesco Merlini – Better in the Dark than His Rider
© » ASX

Francesco Merlini – Better in the Dark than His Rider – AMERICAN SUBURB X Skip to content In sleep or in wakefulness, we are inhabited by images...

Johanna Hedva “If You’re Reading This, I’m Already Dead” at JOAN, Los Angeles
© » MOUSSE MAGAZINE

Johanna Hedva “If You’re Reading This, I’m Already Dead” at JOAN, Los Angeles — Mousse Magazine and Publishing...

Other works by: » Claudia Joskowicz  
» see more

Vallegrande 1967
© » KADIST

Claudia Joskowicz

2008

The primary interest in the trilogy is Joskowicz’s use of cinematic space, with long tracking shots that portray resistance to habitual viewing experiences of film and television...

Drawn and Quartered
© » KADIST

Claudia Joskowicz

2007

The primary interest in the trilogy is Joskowicz’s use of cinematic space, with long tracking shots that portray resistance to habitual viewing experiences of film and television...

Round and Round and Consumed by Fire
© » KADIST

Claudia Joskowicz

2009

The primary interest in the trilogy is Joskowicz’s use of cinematic space, with long tracking shots that portray resistance to habitual viewing experiences of film and television...

Some Dead Don’t Make a Sound (Hay muertos que no hacen ruido)
© » KADIST

Claudia Joskowicz

2015

Some Dead Don’t Make a Sound (Hay muertos que no hacen ruido) is a single-channel video by Claudia Joskowicz that features the Mexican legend of the Weeping Woman (La Llorona) as its main protagonist...

Related artist(s) to: Claudia Joskowicz » Carla Zaccagnini, » Dirceu Maués, » Adriano Costa, » Gabriel Mascaro, » Moran Shavit, » Akram Zaatari, » Eastern Europe, » Jan Villa, » Liu Wei, » Marcellvs L  
» see more

De sino à sina (From Bell to Fate)
© » KADIST

Carla Zaccagnini

2018

De sino à sina (From Bell to Fate) is a six-channel sound installation by Carla Zaccagnini exploring the relationship between modern Brazil and its colonial past...

Westminster Agua Viva
© » KADIST

Adriano Costa

2014

Westminster Agua Viva is made from Westminster City Council(‘s) recycling bin bags, glued together, that the artist has painted and cut or cut and painted...

"Anonymous (Jradi and a friend)", Studio Shehrazade, Saida, Lebanon
© » KADIST

Akram Zaatari

1972

“The two men were relatives and both were in the Lebanese Army.” Hashem El Madani...

Sobre la igualdad y las diferencias: casas gemelas
© » KADIST

Carla Zaccagnini

2005

This series of photographs, Sobre la igualdad y las diferencias: casas gemelas (On Equality and Differences: Twin Houses) , taken in Havana in 2005, belongs to a wider group of works that the artist has been developing over many years, generally titled Bifurcaciones y encrucijadas (Forking Paths and Crossroads) ...

Related works found in the same semantic group  
» see more

KADIST Holiday Get-together
© » KADIST

KADIST Holiday Get-together, exhibition walk-through of Native Art Department International, Bureau of Aesthetics with artist, writer, and educator tamara suarez porras followed by Cran Royale cocktails and cheese boards to welcome our artist-in-residence Jeamin Cha! tamara suarez porras is an artist, writer, and educator from (south) Brooklyn, New York and based in the San Francisco Bay Area...

Ruth Gonzales & Lorien Suárez-Kanerva: The Embrace of Nature by Caron G. Rand - New York
© » WHITEHOT

Ruth Gonzales & Lorien Suárez-Kanerva: The Embrace of Nature advertise donate post your art opening recent articles cities contact about article index podcast main December 2023 "The Best Art In The World" "The Best Art In The World" December 2023 Ruth Gonzales & Lorien Suárez-Kanerva: The Embrace of Nature Eric Minh Swenson Art Films: Ruth Gonzales & Lorien Suárez Kanerva, The Embrace of Nature Exhibition Curator Narration by Peter Frank...

Untitled (Wheelchair drawing)
© » KADIST

Edgar Arceneaux

2006

Untitled (Wheelchair Drawing) is a ten-foot photo transfer of the image of a wheelchair with burning embers in its seat...