Week 3
October 20 - 26
Stills from: Lugar de Consuelo (Place of Solace) by Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa, Guatemala, Single-channel HD video, 35:26 mins, 2020, commissioned by The Power Plant, Toronto.
Images tirées de Lugar de Consuelo (Place of Solace) par Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa, Guatemala, video monocanal HD, 35:26 mins, 2020, commandé par The Power Plant, Toronto.
Images tirées de Lugar de Consuelo (Place of Solace) par Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa, Guatemala, video monocanal HD, 35:26 mins, 2020, commandé par The Power Plant, Toronto.
Stills from: Lugar de Consuelo (Place of Solace) by Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa, Guatemala, Single-channel HD video, 35:26 mins, 2020, commissioned by The Power Plant, Toronto.
Lugar de Consuelo
[Place of Solace] (2020)
Directed by Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa
Guatemala, Single-channel HD video, 35:26 mins, 2020
Film in Spanish with English subtitles
Ramírez-Figueroa filmed Lugar de Consuelo [Place of Solace] at the Popular University (UP) in Guatemala City. The performance and film were inspired by a critique made against the Government of Guatemala, presented at the UP in 1975, which in turn was inspired by the theater play El corazón del espantapájaros, written by Guatemalan playwright Hugo Carrillo in 1962. The original production of El corazón del espantapájaros during the Guatemalan Civil War was revolutionary in its purpose. It aroused violent censorship and lethal attacks on actors and theaters, concluding with the burning of one of the city’s theaters. Perhaps due to this trauma, memories of the 1975 performance are hazy. Ramírez-Figueroa's work is the staging of a new script, written in collaboration with poet Wingston González, in which the original characters of the play exist in a fascist context, and play the roles of both villains and victims.
Credits:
Lugar de Consuelo
Filmed at Universidad Popular, december 2019
Script, direction and costume design:
Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa
Script:
Wingston González
Camera, editing, and direction:
Robert Beske
Assistant camera: Pablo Valladares
Cast:
Wingston Gonzalez
Jeffrey Ortega
Natalia Mendoça
Dharma Morales
Leslie Romero
Casting assistance:
Evelyn Price
To register, please send an email to rsvp@sbcgallery.ca and mention the title of the film. You will then receive a link as well as the date of the event.
Still photography:
Mel Mencos
Sound:
Amenothep Córdova
Sound assistant and data manager:
Pepe Orozco
Costumes and props:
Joe Seely
Alex Casimiro
Valentina soares
Nicolette henry
Alvaro Cuessi
Prop Maintenance and Costume Adjustment:
Andrea Gomez
Elizabeth Bacaro
Electricians:
Carlos Armas
Josué Hernández
Geovanny Alarcon
Germán "Piernas" Hernández
Production :
Alberto Rodríguez Collía
Merci à :
Joaquín Ruano
Sergio Ramírez
Andrés Rodríguez
Hugo Quinto
Pablo Chután
Lorena Rojas
Dirección Centro Histórico
Raquel Jiménez
Centro Cultural de España, au Guatemala
Ingrid Mejía
Universidad Popular
Comisaría 11 de la PNC
Miguel Sun
Josue Soria
Oscar Gómez
Andy Benavente
L’officier Jesús Ignacio
L’officier Rolando Chiroy Mendoza
This episode presents a conversation between Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa and Wingston González.
Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa (Guatemala, 1978) lives and works in Guatemala City. He holds a BFA from Emily Carr University, Vancouver, an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and was a research fellow at Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht. Using performance, sound, drawing and sculpture, Ramírez-Figueroa’s work conjures live and sculptural representations that explore themes of loss, displacement and cultural resistance. The Guatemalan Civil War (1960–1996) is a recurring subject in his work, which although often softened by an absurd and humorous approach, fails to conceal the force of history that precedes it.
Ramírez-Figueroa has participated in various solo and group exhibitions including Asymmetries, The Power Plant, Toronto (2020); At Small Arms, Toronto Biennial Of Art (2019); The Sixth State, Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros, Mexico City (2018); The Guardian of the Forest, Proyectos Ultravioleta; Guatemala City (2018); The House of Kawinal, New Museum, New York (2018); The Luminous Grid, Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf (2018); Shit Baby and the Crumpled Giraffe, Kunsthalle Lissabon, Lisbon (2017); The Green Ray, daadgalerie, Berlin (2017); VIVA ARTE VIVA, 57th Biennale di Venezia, Venice (2017); Two Flamingos Copulating on a Tin Roof, Haus Esters, Krefeld Kunstmuseum, Krefeld (2017); Incerteza Viva, 32 Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo (2016); God’s Reptilian Finger, Gasworks, London (2015); Rendez-Vous, 13th Lyon Biennale, Lyon (2015); Burning Down the House, 10th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju (2014); A Chronicle of Interventions, Tate Modern, London, (2014); Illy Present Future, Castello di Rivoli, Torino (2013); Beber y Leer El Arcoiris, Casa América, Madrid (2012).
He is a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Mies Van Der Rohe prize, the Franklin Furnace award, the Akademie Schloss Solitude fellowship, and the DAAD in Berlin.
Wingston González (Livingston, Guatemala, 1986) is a writer. He has published eleven poetry books, one of the most notorious being Transacciones [Transactions] (Editorial Cultura, 2015). He was awarded the Premio mesoamericano de poesía Luis Cardoza y Aragón [Luis Cardoza y Aragón Mesoamerican poetry prize] in 2015.
Most recently, he has published the plaquettes No Budu Please (Ugly Duckling Presse, New York, 2018) and Qué haré con mi lugar en el cielo [What Will I Do With My Place in Heaven] (Toronto Art BIennial, 2020). He also collaborates with projects and forms part of works in the fields of dance, visual arts, music, and performance. He lives in Guatemala City.