The Books of Waiting
Book One: Unfinished Portraits
Performative actions. Canada and USA 2010-2012
These 'Unfinished Portraits' in Book One question the nature of portraiture and temporality. They explore a kinaesthetic expression of the mimetic imagination: a mind-emotion activity that viscerally engages the body and the senses to access, navigate, and make meaning of memories that go beyond cognitive language. These performativities engage the mimetic imagination from visceral memories were later gathered in The Books of Waiting.
Retrato al revés 2012
HD video, sound 01:23Camera, performative action: Livia Daza-ParisVoices: Alba Daza, Livia Daza-ParisSound composer: Pablo BonacinaEditor: Sebastián ReyesThe story in the letters | La historia en las cartas 2012
HD video, sound 03:32Camera, performative action, voice: Livia Daza-ParisSound composition: Andrew TelichanEditor: Sebastián Reyes, Xi FengTo tell you | Decirte 2011
HD video, sound 02:53Camera, performative action, voice: Livia Daza-ParisSound engineering: Andrew TelichanEditor: David MartinezThese assembled 'Unfinished Portraits' comprise Book One. This artwork began from improvised performative actions based on visceral memories.
They were video recorded as they happened without second takes, nor with any special lighting or props. A narrative developed from these embodiment explorations that I organized as video chapters and my texts interspersed with letters from my mother. I found those letters after her sudden death in 1999.
This work is committed to expressing dimensions—from deep within the body—of state violence's intangible impacts. It attempts to do so in the tradition of the 'instant dance, improvisations, and performance' in which I was immersed in NYC during the late 1980s. The performativities, video and sound recordings happened in non-controlled spaces (forests and abandoned areas) in Toronto ON, the Laurentian region of QC, and Detroit MI.