Jonathas de Andrade, Pacífico, 2010 as seen in Videobrasil
Jonathas de Andrade,
Pacífico
Animation with styrofoam model board, maps and paper
stop motion in super-8
stop motion in super-8
12 minutes
2010
A massive earthquake erupts over the Andes, detaching Chile from the South American continent. As a consequence, the sea returns to Bolivia restoring its lost coastline, Argentina gains coasts with both the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans, and Chile becomes a floating island adrift in the seas.
"In my visit to Bolivia in 2009, I was affected by the way the loss of the sea to Chile in the bloody Pacific War (1879-1884) was a delicate subject, unresolved, a real historical taboo. Even the smallest Bolivian bookshops sell educational material for schools that didactically show the injustice of what was done, Chile’s cowardliness, the need to regain the lost sea and to defend the coast’s sovereignty. In Chile, the existence of the war is not emphasised: generally, it is taught that the whole coast has always been Chilean.
In this project, the idea of the construction of truth and feelings about historical events interests me. Moral and civic didacticism is linked to my decision to work with paper and styrofoam, as they are the materials originally used for teaching in these regions. This aesthetic approach allows me to touch upon some other topics: the notion of truth as an ideological construction, the document’s relative trustworthiness, the historical resentment as a social feeling, and the fabrication of mass commotion/emotion as political artifice.
Jonathas de Andrade, Pacífico, was exhibited in the 17th International Contemporary Art Festival SESC_Videobrasil, an undertaking of Associação Cultural Videobrasil (www.videobrasil.org.br) and SESC São Paulo (www.sescsp.org.br).A massive earthquake erupts over the Andes, detaching Chile from the South American continent. As a consequence, the sea returns to Bolivia restoring its lost coastline, Argentina gains coasts with both the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans, and Chile becomes a floating island adrift in the seas.
"In my visit to Bolivia in 2009, I was affected by the way the loss of the sea to Chile in the bloody Pacific War (1879-1884) was a delicate subject, unresolved, a real historical taboo. Even the smallest Bolivian bookshops sell educational material for schools that didactically show the injustice of what was done, Chile’s cowardliness, the need to regain the lost sea and to defend the coast’s sovereignty. In Chile, the existence of the war is not emphasised: generally, it is taught that the whole coast has always been Chilean.
In this project, the idea of the construction of truth and feelings about historical events interests me. Moral and civic didacticism is linked to my decision to work with paper and styrofoam, as they are the materials originally used for teaching in these regions. This aesthetic approach allows me to touch upon some other topics: the notion of truth as an ideological construction, the document’s relative trustworthiness, the historical resentment as a social feeling, and the fabrication of mass commotion/emotion as political artifice.
17th International Contemporary Art Festival SESC_Videobrasil
September 2011–January 2012
São Paulo, Brazil
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