Suspensión I, 2019
Suspensión I is part of a series of videos around the subject of play. Adrián Balseca recorded the last group of people living in the Sangay National Park, in the province of Morona Santiago, Ecuador. A young girl climbs a cut-down tree trunk from which hang the ‘trophies’ of modern progress. These are plastic recipients containing local fossil fuels, such as petrol and diesel, among others. A playful scene reminiscent of Goya’s painting La cucaña (The Greasy Pole, 1786), a popular game in which boys climb a greased pole in an attempt to win the food prizes suspended from the top, cheered on by a watching crowd. Introduced to the Americas by the colonisers, Balseca uses it here to recreate the colonial imaginary of a supposedly exuberant land – in the Middle Ages, the País de la Cucaña, or Land of the Cockaigne, was a mythical land of plenty where nobody had to work – and the abusive system of economic extraction that has ultimately contaminated a country like Ecuador.
Technical details
- Original title:
- Suspensión I
- Registration number:
- 5860
- Artist:
- Balseca, Adrián
- Date created:
- 2019
- Date acquired:
- 2020
- Fonds:
- MACBA Collection. MACBA Foundation
- Object type:
- Audiovisual recording
- Media:
- Digital video, colour, sound, 5 min, loop
- Edition number:
- Ed. 3/3 + 3 P.A.
- Credits:
- MACBA Collection. MACBA Foundation
- Copyright:
- © Adrián Blaseca
- It has accessibility resources:
- No
The MACBA Collection features Catalan, Spanish and international art and, although it includes works from the 1920s onwards, its primary focus is on the period between the 1960s and the present.
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