WEBZINE ACC

Remembering May through artwork

Performance <Earth Does Not Hide The Dead>
- Regina José Galindo

On one side of ACC Plaza sit piles of soil. As many as 13 piles swell from the ground, with shapes of low mountaintops. Eyes full of curiosity, wondering what is happening, are placed at the site. A petite woman in bare feet gradually paces her way toward the soil mountains. She steps on the soil, climbs up, and puts herself in the center of the burrowed pile. Men dressed in black clothes approach her and start to bury her under the soil with their shovels: from her waistline, then to the chest, then to the shoulders… With more shoveling, the woman’s body vanishes under the soil, leaving nothing on the ground but her face.

The woman, bearing the weight of the soil solely on her body, stands and stares forward.
Toward what and whom does the unblinking gaze that does neither look away nor evade direct?

Artist Regina José Galindo, the winner of the “Golden Lion” award

Reveals the truth of the Gwangju Uprising, known in Korean as May 18 (5/18), that can never be concealed or suppressed

The lead who stirred up the ACC Plaza on the day was Guatemalan Artist Regina José Galindo. Widely known for her resistant and radical performance art, she is a world-famous performance artist and winner of the Golden Lion at the 51st Venice International Film Festival. On the day, the artist performed her work titled <Earth Does Not Hide The Dead>, in relation to the ACC Special Exhibition titled <Walking, Wandering>, burying herself under the soil. <Earth Does Not Hide The Dead> is the artwork and the event of “ACC May Culture Week,” which deals with the Gwangju Democracy Movement of May 18.

The work reveals symbolically, as the title suggests, that the history and truth of the May 18 Uprising cannot be concealed or disguised. Viewers can understand the perspective of the artist on the democratic movement through her use of the number 13, which is the figure regarded as sacred since ancient Mayan civilization, with her 13 soil-mountaintops. It is the forever-sacred spirit of victims of the May 18 Democratic Uprising, even buried under the soil, like a lotus remaining pure and innocent even in mud. The artist presents, through her performance, the fact that no matter how much the soil attempts to cover up the eyes of the victimized soul of the May 18 Democratic Uprising or no matter how oppressive they become, the spirit of the uprising can never be concealed.

Volcanic mountaintops

The victims of the May 18 Democratic Uprising come into bloom as human flowers

The performance, burying 13 people under the 13 soil-mountaintops one by one, continued on for about one hour, slowly and steadily. It offered the time to look at people having their last breaths, who once were leading a normal life, like us, but suddenly being buried under the ground by someone one day.

The soil kept running down, despite piling up again and again, and the performers endured the suffering without a word, only staring into the air. Their piercing gazes indicated their will to keep their eyes wide open under any circumstances. The completed mountaintops resembled a human blooming like a flower or a volcanic peak. The performance, delivered for a long time in perfect silence, created a profound impression in the final stage.

At the end of the presentation, the people who were buried under the mountaintops begin to push the soil away and walk out of them. The scene makes the viewers believe that the victims of the May 18 Democratic Uprising are coming back to life, turning back time. How desperate they must have been to live? How much they hoped to get back to their families, by walking just like that? It was much more heartbreaking to see them walking again, as it can never happen here in reality.

A powerful message conveyed through a silent performance

“We owe our lives to their sacrifices.”

Even though the artist did not say a word during the hour-long performance, the audience listened to the silence that spoke louder than words. That we should never forget that on this very ground we stand, the countless number of victims of the movement were buried, their sacrifices turned into the solid soil of today that makes us stand strong, and their spirits became seeds of hope for our future.

1980s Gwangju by another name

Guatemala, the land with a tragic history of dictatorship and civil war

Artist Regina José Galindo was able to resonate with the May 18 Democratic Uprising in many ways, but particularly since her homeland Guatemala resembles the May of Gwangju in the 1980s. Guatemala suffered from a long period of civil war and a military coup, millions of civilians hurt and sacrificed. Her other works demonstrate the hurtful and tragic history of her country, stained with tears from dictatorship and war. In particular, the work titled <Who Can Erase the Traces?> for which she received the Golden Lion, shares much in common with what happened in Gwangju on May 18.

Footsteps resisting against the Guatemalan military dictatorship in the 1980s

<Who Can Erase the Traces?>

The work reminds people of the sacrifices under the Guatemalan military dictatorship in the 1980s, where Galindo walks on the Guatemalan streets, leaving her footsteps printed in red while holding the bucket of human blood. Her bloody footprints continue on to the Constitutional Court. Those prints represent the artist’s footsteps in remembering the victims of history and the footsteps of those who suffered resisting against the dictatorship. Like the spirit of the May 18 Democratic Uprising that cannot be concealed under the ground, the steps are the prints of struggle for democratization.

The exploitation of nature and human in the name of economic development

<Rivers of People (Ríos de Gente)>

Another performance titled <Rivers of People> criticizes the reality of the country that has stripped the indigenous peoples of Guatemala in the name of economic development, leaving a river polluted and dried up. The artist walks with the people, holding the drapes in sky blue, to remember the places where a river once flowed. And they would scream: “We fight for life, we fight for water, water is not merchandise.”

The collective action included participation of over one thousand people, from children to the elderly. Their faces tell people that we become more courageous and have louder voices when we walk together.

Conversation with Artist Regina José Galindo

• How did you feel after completing the performance <Earth Does Not Hide The Dead>? What were some of the hardships?

  I had a hard time breathing since I had the soil piled up to my chest, and the soil kept falling down when I tried to breathe. It was more challenging than I expected, staying that way for about an hour.

• It’s your first visit to Gwangju. How do you like it?

  Gwangju is a city with an admirable historical memory. The visit was quite meaningful since I was able to see a peaceful parade, events, and shows commemorating the May 18 Democratic Uprising. I believe it is worthwhile to establish a new democratic city.

• How did you shape your idea for the work <Earth Does Not Hide The Dead>?

  I approached it as a work rescuing the memory and exclaiming the truth. I wanted to shed light on things that are hidden, concealed, silenced, and denied, through my performance. Memory cannot be covered, quieted or negated forever. I wanted to send a message that land does not conceal the deceased but speaks the truth.

• What do you think about the Gwangju Uprising?

  Looking back at the 1980s, the two countries, Korea and Guatemala share a very similar story. Military government and the violent dictatorship raging a war against the progressive left movement. And countless people victimized while resisting against such violence…What happened on May 18 was a state crime and should be judged.