Against the Drought of Signs

Against the Drought of Signs is a video installation that is in search of possible contemporary representations of forests in the political and economic situation of the Araucanía region in Chile, where industry and monoculture continues to provoke important territorial conflicts as well as causing major ecological upsets.
Composed of two video loops projected on screens that are placed one behind the other, these two videos, scenes of forest, explore how the notion of mimesis allow forms of expression and interaction with forests not only through poetry but also beyond language.

The videos draw an analogy between forest and cinema, in which we could perceive forest as cinemas beyond human temporalities: multitudes of multi-directional screens, whose intentionalities and subjectivities create countless signs and narratives.
If the text Ka wün from Mapuche poet Leonel Lienlaf is included in the sound of the videos, another collaboration is realized with this artist through an edition featuring the first translation and transformation in Mapuzungun of the Welsh poem Kat Godeu (The Battle of the Trees), coexisting alongside with a new Spanish translation by writer Diego Milos and an English version.

This work is the result of researches conducted during Fundación Mar Adentro’s residency program in Bosque Pehuén, in the Araucanía Andina region, Chile.

Against the Drought of Signs was first presented during group exhibition “El tercer paisaje” (part of 14th Bienal de Artes Mediales “El Cuarto Mondo”), National Museum of Fine Arts, Santiago, Chile.
http://www.bienaldeartesmediales.cl/14/participantes/etienne-de-france