livia daza paris | poetic forensics

Antigone, diary of rituals N.2: River Burial and Ridge of Silence

Lara, Venezuela 2012

Antigone, diary of rituals N.2: River Burial and Ridge of Silence 2012Lara, VenezuelaHD video, audio, single-channel, split-screen 13:33Camera: Euro García, Livia Daza-ParisPerformative action: Livia Daza-ParisEditors: Xi Feng, Michael Poetschko

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Antigone, diary of rituals N.2: River Burial and Ridge of Silence is part of a series of site-specific physical poems marking the land in rural Lara State, Venezuela. They commemorate the disappearances, including of my own father, caused by state violence in the 1960s during the insurgency movement. These rituals transform isolated mourning into a public activity as gestures of care across time and make claims to non-official history.
Created with support from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Alcaldía de Morán in Lara, and Ministerio del Poder Popular para la Cultura de Venezuela. Special thanks to Euro García for his support and participation in the creation of this work.

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This video presents two different rituals realized on different days. River Burial took place in the cold, crystalline mountain waters near the town of Guaríco, Lara and Ridge of Silence is around the place my father, Iván Daza, was disappeared.
Days earlier I had met with the sole survivor of the ambush, Rufino, who told me about this place "Zanjón del Silencio" (Ridge of Silence). I went there and found that it was at once beautiful and eerie. Its waters were stagnant and silent. An uncanny mirror to the story I investigate.

Letters my mother had written to me—which I only found by chance after her passing— I printed them in poster size. These very large letters were essential in the rituals. I placed them around the ridge. In retrospect, I was aiming to create a conversation between this place and what my mother, Irma Paris, had attempted to reveal in her letters to me about what had happened... but she died suddenly before being able to finish her writing.