REDES: bread and justice, peaches and bananas by Camila Galaz

External Pages is excited to announce the launch of REDES: bread and justice, peaches and bananas by Camila Galaz, featured on External Pages from 19 February – 31 March 2021.

REDES: bread and justice, peaches and bananas is an interactive video exhibition exploring political ideals expressed through network communication during two periods of change in Chilean history. Focusing on the impact of COVID-19 on the current Estallido Social movement, the research is displayed through the interface of Project Cybersyn, a socialist cybernetics project from the early 70s Allende period.

Visitors of REDES: bread and justice, peaches and bananas are encouraged to investigate how protestors are increasingly utilizing social media in protesting activity, and the role of connection, surveillance, and archiving within the 2019–2021 Chilean protests. Galaz’s documented investigation consists of correspondences with the anonymous team of a Chilean Instagram news account, a Chilean journalist living in London, and her production team across the world. The work negotiates events in Chile from afar, across time zones, languages, and mis/translation.

Audiences navigate the show via a control panel interface found on the classic Tulip chairs of the Cybersyn Opsroom. Based on a viable system model, Cybersyn aimed to level hierarchies and improve communication through computer technologies in a manner aligned with Allende’s socialist ideals. With the backdrop of the Opsroom, the work highlights the awkward evolution of network communication: demonstrators using the tools of modern social media apps that are a consequence of neoliberalism – an ideology that protesters are in fact challenging in the face of austerity.

“Redes”, translates to “networks” from Spanish. The subtitle comes from an introduction to a lecture by Fernando Flores (Minister of Economics and Finance during the Allende Government and in charge of Project Cybersyn) in which the speaker describes carrying around a book by Flores so much that it was covered in rotten peaches and bananas from the bottom of his backpack. Food shortages, hunger, and the shutting down of community soup kitchens (ollas comunas), are recurring issues in Chile. Against the spoiled peaches, “bread and justice” comes from ‘Litany for a Computer and a Baby About to Be Born’, a song created to promote Project Cybersyn: pan y justicia en la tierra (bread and justice on earth).

Camila Galaz, 2021

REDES: bread and justice, peaches and bananas was made with assistance and coding from the team at External Pages, graphic design from Effie Crompton, and CGI from Bel Docherty.

The artist thanks Naomi Larsson Piñeda, the team at @18.10aprueba, Galería Cima, Eden Medina, and Baird Campbell.

About the artist

Camila Galaz is a Chilean-Australian visual artist and filmmaker based in Los Angeles, California (Tovaangar). Working in video, text, and across digital platforms, her multimodal practice looks to understand how intimate connections to history exist through personal narratives, social media, collective memory, and cultural texts. Recent commissions include the Digital Writers’ Festival, Sister Gallery, Outback Arthouse, and West Space. She is the recipient of the 2018 M-Power Scholarship from the National Gallery of Victoria and the 2019-2021 Australia Council EMPAC New York Residency. Her current work is supported through an LA County Vibrant Cities Arts Grant.
www.camilagalaz.com
@_camilagalaz
Sneak peek: https://camila-galaz.vercel.app/

Final link (live on Friday, 19th of February): https://externalpages.org/camila-galaz

About:

External Pages is an online exhibition space that shows net art by young artists.