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Phantom Pain
Phantom Pain
Phantom
Pain is a
time-based organic/biological performance piece based on various readings and manuals for patients who have
experienced the loss of one or more limbs as a result of accidents or medical
procedures. As result, I wrote a poem that was later translated into Sirionó, an endangered language from
the Bolivian forest with less than a thousand speakers.
The
poem was written in a highly acidified paper and sprinkled with fragments of Aspergillus fungus. The acidity and the action of Aspergillus rendered the
calligraphy unreadable after a few days, and within a fortnight the paper disintegrated.
Its
disappearance coincided with the time frame -every two weeks- in which it
is estimated one language of the seven thousand languages spoken on Earth
disappears.
Phantom Pain was developed in collaboration with conservators of the National School of Conservation, Restoration and Museography ENCRyM (MX), and the University of Lyon Linguistics Department (FR).
This work was exhibited at: 9th SIART International Art Biennale, La Paz (2016); ISEA, Durban, South Africa
(2018).
Download publication (English/Spanish)
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Installation Views. Paper, iron gall ink, Aspergillus fungi. Dimensions Variable.