Film & Video (Film & Video)

Shot on 35mm in two simply framed shots, Jazmín López’s Juego Vivo captures children at play, mixing imagination, reality, innocence, and violence. Set within a lush, green forest, we see first several children come into the frame, walking towards us, as a disembodied voice counts off “Tres…cuatro…cinco…” A game of hide and seek is at hand, and sounds of the girl counting are met with scattering children. In the first shot, while everyone else disperses, one boy advances steadily toward the camera, holding a scavenged stick in his hands, wielding it like a gun.

Painting (Painting)

Jorge de León most well-known work was a radical gesture, and one of his earliest artworks: in his 2000 performance, The Circle, de León sewed his own mouth closed as a protest against the silencing of citizens in the face of social corruption. His Cristal series is more demure, but follows a similar theme. In these works, delicate, web-like lines emerge against dark backgrounds, creating orbs of negative space, pitch black.