Paulina del Paso (Member of the National System of Art Creators) reorients the plastic possibilities of the moving image with a new piece that combines critical edge with glorious form: a diptych that collects the detritus of mass media production to recalibrate the cosmeticization of politics, the body, and the image. Evoking the infamous phrase attributed to Arthur Shopenhauer, and the hetenormativity that subtends the discourse of publicity, the piece translates cultural hegemony into a hypnotic and disturbing audiovisual spectacle: two kaleidoscopic video-sculptures composed of visual and aural clichés, grafted onto a rotating corpse that oscillates between the monstrous and the sublime; that alludes to the aberrant aspects of mass media, but also to the impeccable and seductive geometry of Busby Berkeley’s choreographies. Del Paso, who began making video in the pre-digital era (when video was “unworthy” of the big screen) constructs a harmonious cacophony that distills the voices, which compose and decompose the televisual imaginary. With this eccentric and subversive gesture, she also invites us to celebrate the pioneers of video’s pre-history who surreptitiously reshape our media consciousness, and announce cinema’s forgotten futures.
by Mara Fortes
