Screening of “I Will Outlive You” by Claudia Martínez Garay at the Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah

Claudia Martínez Garay’s work investigates objects’ journeys between their origin and destination, suggesting that the information accrued in these transitory spaces holds value and power. After encountering a ceramic vase at the Ethnological Museum of Berlin (DE) depicting a Moche prisoner moments before he was sacrificed, Claudia Martínez Garay began speculating how art can underline implications of cultural appropriation and contribute to creating narratives that challenge, and complicate, the discourse of domination and cultural hegemony. Death and sacrificial rituals were an important part of Moche societyand cultures, and the archetype of prisoner - through its diverse transmutations - is explored in ÑUQA KAUSAKUSAQ QHEPAYKITAPAS/ I WILL OUTLIVE YOU (2017). The video is a form of personal and shared storytelling, with fact and fiction intersecting and blurring together. The timeline in the video shifts from the prisoner’s state of mind prior to his death to his childhood, to its transfiguration into a digital being, to its knowing incarceration as an artwork on display.

January 26, 2019