The Good Life (2005-2008)
Wooden structure, multi-channel video, photos. Courtesy: the artist
The Good Life is a multi-part video project composed of over 360 video interviews with pedestrians on the streets of 12 cities in Latin America: Bogotá, Buenos Aires, Caracas, Guatemala, La Paz, Managua, México City, Panamá, Santiago, San Salvador, São Paulo and Tegucigalpa. The work examines processes of democratization as they relate to US interventionist policies in the region, and the interviews cover topics such as individuals’ perceptions of US foreign policy, democracy, leadership, and governance. The result is a wide spectrum of responses and opinions, which vary according to local situations and specifi c forms of government in each country. Viewers encounter a multi-channel video installation, where 12 monitors are mounted on a four-part, two-tiered wooden structure that is an abstracted formal reference to the Priene, the theater and the general space of the Athenian agora, in which citizens were entitled to meet, debate, and participate in legislative and judicial decisions. The position of the monitors on the structure allows them to metaphorically function as speaking subjects –citizens– in the space, addressing their comments to a wider forum.
