La Sombra (The Shadow)

- Film & Video (Film & Video)

11:00 minutes

Regina José Galindo

location: Guatemala City, Guatemala
year born: 1974
gender: female
nationality: Guatemalan
home town: Guatemala City, Guatemala

La Sombra (The Shadow) is a video of Regina Jose Galindo performing with a moving Leopard tank. The artist runs until exhaustion across a dirt field in what looks like a military site. Recorded for the camera, and projected on loop, the video performance was created for Documenta 14. Galindo dedicated the work to all women who go unnoticed and whose screams remain unheard. The artist states that she wanted to highlight the under-recognized fact that Germany is a major arms exporter, with Guatemala a prize client. The work thus seeks to unpack the city of Kassel’s loaded yet veiled history as one of Germany’s biggest arsenals. The battle-tank that pursues the artist in the video was made for cross-country warfare and invented in Germany. The company who manufactured the turret of the tank is in fact still partially owned by the family of Arnold Bode who founded the Documenta exhibition in 1955. La Sombra points to the entanglement of the apparatuses of art and war and the international art market.


Regina José Galindo is a visual and performance artist. Her work investigates the universal ethical implications of social injustices such as racial, gender, and other abuses in our society’s inequitable institutions of power. In the context of a newly democratized culture, Galindo has developed a socially and politically motivated practice. She strives to acknowledge her country’s thirty-six years of civil war while also looking forward to a more peaceful and productive future. Galindo’s work focuses on historical issues that persist in the “new” Guatemala. Her work is confrontational and often shocking, bringing to light issues that few Guatemalans are willing to confront. Galindo’s unapologetically graphic actions amplify her contentious statements. She hopes to shake her Guatemalan audience out of their trance, breaking the numbness caused by years of violence. Galindo is best known for her performance work addressing the social, political and cultural violence that has affected her native Guatemala. Her work stages her own body, often submitting it to severe acts in order to evince the mass violence, crimes and sacrifice experienced by indigenous Mayan communities and the women among them who suffered the brunt of the conflict during the thirty-six year conflict. Indifference is not an option for Galindo, by appropriating destruction and loss, her work condemns the abuse of women, and propels viewers to response or resistance.


Colors:



Related works featuring themes of: » Body Art, » Central America, » Feminism, » Contemporary Participation, » Guatemalan  
» see more

Radical Hospitality
© » KADIST

Andrea Bowers

2015

Bowers’ Radical Hospitality (2015) is a sculptural contradiction: its red and blue neon letters proclaim the words of the title, signaling openness and generosity, while the barbed wires that encircle the words give another message entirely...

Study from May Day March, Los Angeles 2010 (Immigration Reform Now) and We Are Immigrants Not Terrorists
© » KADIST

Andrea Bowers

2010

The small drawings that comprise Study from May Day March, Los Angeles 2010 (Immigration Reform Now) and We Are Immigrants Not Terrorists are based on photographs taken at a political rally in downtown Los Angeles in which thousands of individuals demonstrated for immigrants’ rights...

The American War
© » KADIST

Harrell Fletcher

2005

The American War , which takes its title from the Vietnamese term for what Americans call the Vietnam War, has toured the United States extensively with the goal of presenting a Vietnamese perspective of that history...

The Tower of Babel: The Carnaval
© » KADIST

Du Zhenjun

2010

The Tower of Babel is an installation of large-format photographs that forces the audience to occupy a central position through its monumental scale...

Other related works, blended automatically  
» see more

Tierra
© » KADIST

Regina José Galindo

2013

In 2012, former Guatemalan President José Efran Ros Montt was charged with genocide and crimes against humanity; Regina José Galindo’s video Tierra is a chilling reimagining of the atrocities recounted during his trial...

Radical Hospitality
© » KADIST

Andrea Bowers

2015

Bowers’ Radical Hospitality (2015) is a sculptural contradiction: its red and blue neon letters proclaim the words of the title, signaling openness and generosity, while the barbed wires that encircle the words give another message entirely...

Study from May Day March, Los Angeles 2010 (Immigration Reform Now) and We Are Immigrants Not Terrorists
© » KADIST

Andrea Bowers

2010

The small drawings that comprise Study from May Day March, Los Angeles 2010 (Immigration Reform Now) and We Are Immigrants Not Terrorists are based on photographs taken at a political rally in downtown Los Angeles in which thousands of individuals demonstrated for immigrants’ rights...

Mickey Mouse
© » KADIST

Paul McCarthy

2010

To make Mickey Mouse (2010), Paul McCarthy altered a found photograph—not of the iconic cartoon, but of a man costumed as Mickey...

Related works sharing similar palette  
» see more

The Paintings of Madeleine Pfull
© » HIGH FRUCTOSE

The middle-aged figures inhabiting Madeleine Pfull's paintings are extracted from 1980s suburbia...

Staying woke: “Awakenings” at National Gallery Singapore
© » ARTS EQUATOR

Staying woke: “Awakenings” at National Gallery Singapore | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Articles Safely Manoeuvring Across Linhe Road by Lin Yilin...

Weight & Velocity (Cat on Router)
© » KADIST

Gabriel Pericas

2014

“Weight & velocity (cat on router)” is a duo of two humorous photographs of a cat lying on a computer router...

This One, That One
© » KADIST

Micah Lexier

2017

This One, That One by Micah Lexier does not have one ultimate version, but instead consists of a source body of 51 separate chapters that are edited to make up different versions...

Other works by: » Regina José Galindo  
» see more

Tierra
© » KADIST

Regina José Galindo

2013

In 2012, former Guatemalan President José Efran Ros Montt was charged with genocide and crimes against humanity; Regina José Galindo’s video Tierra is a chilling reimagining of the atrocities recounted during his trial...

Related artist(s) to: Regina José Galindo » Teresa Margolles, » Latin America, » Ana Mendieta, » Alfredo Jaar, » Francis Alÿs, » Javier Téllez, » Tania Bruguera, » Luis Camnitzer, » Mauricio Alejo, » Michael Stevenson  
» see more

40 Km
© » KADIST

Teresa Margolles

2014

Stretching between San Pedro and the beach in Altata, Sinaloa, there is a 40 km road where there are three invisible borders controlled by rivalling armed groups...

Untitled (series)
© » KADIST

Francis Alÿs

2006

This series of small drawings is executed with varying materials—pen, ink, colored pencil, charcoal, and masking tape—on architect’s tracing paper...

Related works found in the same semantic group  
» see more

Omer Fast
© » KADIST

Omer Fast talks about two of his works in the Kadist collection: “A Tank Translated” (2002) and “De Grote Boodschap” (2007)...

Collector Qiao Zhibing's Tank Shanghai Museum Opens on West Bund Waterfront - via The Art Newspaper
© » LARRY'S LIST

The reborn oil tanks host shows by teamLab, Adrián Villar Rojas and assorted Chinese artists...

Join us this summer for a community sculpture by Rashid Johnson and an experimental opera for trees by Kamala Sankaram
© » CREATIVETIME

Join us this summer for a community sculpture by Rashid Johnson and an experimental opera for trees by Kamala Sankaram - Creative Time Join us this summer for a community sculpture by Rashid Johnson and an experimental opera for trees by Kamala Sankaram April 16th, 2021 Tweet Email Today, Creative Time announces forthcoming public projects that anticipate that this summer, after months of isolation and trauma, art in the public realm will play a significant role in helping New Yorkers celebrate their city, reconnect with their communities, and reestablish relationships with the natural world around them...

Performance Art And Interactive Booths Take LA Art Show
© » ARTREPORT

Performance Art And Interactive Booths Take LA Art Show – Art Report News ARTISTS Artist Highlights Artist Interviews Studio Visit VIDEOS ART+ Community Listicles No Result View All Result News ARTISTS Artist Highlights Artist Interviews Studio Visit VIDEOS ART+ Community Listicles No Result View All Result No Result View All Result Performance Art And Interactive Booths Take LA Art Show by Christina Lee Jan 28, 2016 in Featured 0 LA Art Show 2016, Los Angeles Convention Center, Photo: Everest Share on Facebook Share on Twitter LA Art Show at the Los Angeles Convention Center...