“Represent”
Video by Maritea Dæhlin
14min 31sec
2022
I came across this quote: «They cannot represent themselves, they must be represented». It is by Marx, from a very different context and time than the one I was reading and feeling it from, but it resonated in an uncomfortable way. Not with the need to know too much about the origin of the sentence, but to feel it, touch it, think it, eat it or throw it up. They. Represent. I represent. They cannot. You represent. We represent you. I cannot represent myself. I have to represent you, as you cannot represent yourself, even if you believe you represent me. We have to represent them, as they cannot represent. You represent me. We cannot represent each other. I don’t want you to represent me. I want to represent them, but not when they represent you and you represent him who represents her. We represent each other, but no-one represents those who are not present. Who are those that cannot be represented? Who are those that represent? Who insists on representation? Who desires representation? Who needs representation? I will represent her, even she doesn’t want me to. You represent me, when I represent them.
Then there is the salt, that preserves but also hurts.
Videographer and light: Isaac Díaz Valderrama
Creative assistants: Juans Sebastián Mariscal and Ursula Lascurain
Videographer assistant: Juan Jara
Quote: Karl Marx
A series of one take video-performances, that can be seen as a visual ritual attempting to push the boundaries of the understanding of the self as a layered and fluid being.
Shown at various location in Mexico, Zambia, USA, Brasil, South Africa, U.K, Norway, Denmark, Colombia. Currently at Ava in Cape Town, South Africa and as part of Voicing Silences at Livingstone Museum, Zambia.
Videos by Maritea Dæhlin
Camera and light: Isaac Diaz Valderrama
Creative assistant and props: Ursula Lascurain
