Isabella Lee Arturo

Afasia 2

Video-installation, 2018

Aphasia II is a multi-channel video installation, made with found archival videos from television newsreels and documentaries, in which armed actors of the Colombian conflict were interviewed.

The found videos are digitally edited to isolate the mouths of three subjects, each representing the three main armed groups of the Colombian conflict: the paramilitary groups, the guerrilla groups and the state.

My aim is to deconstruct the discourse of the interviewees with digital editing, cutting and rearranging their words, in order to transform their discourses. As a result, each subject speaks the discourse of the other, allowing the adversaries of the war to articulate words of the enemies they once aimed their guns at.

The spectator is surrounded by a cacophony of words and ideologies, which at times become unintelligible. With this project I intend to reflect on the relationship between language and violence, specifically in the context of my country, where ideological discourses and violent acts are thunderously intertwined.