Overview

Alia Farid introduces Un afán incómodo [An Uncomfortable Eagerness] by Gilda Mantilla and Raimond Chaves:

‘I chose this work for the way it utilises archival images. Rather than historicising images, Gilda Mantilla and Raimond Chaves demonstrate how ‘meaning’ is constructed in a reciprocal process between the viewer and the images in which the images offer themselves to the viewer to interpret them.’

About the Work:
The audiovisual essay, Un afán incómodo [An Uncomfortable Eagerness], presents a collection of texts, images and sounds with musical scores collected from the collections of two libraries in the Peruvian port city of Iquitos, which specialize in Amazonian themes. Building a story based on short clips, Mantilla and Chaves reflect on the role images play to mediate and inform our notions on places and specific socio-political as well as socio-ecological contexts.

The film has been screened in exhibitions, such as Amazonías, Matadero Madrid: Centro de Creación Contemporánea (2019); Una cierta investigación sobre las imágenes: Building Ghost Transmission, Fotonoviembre, Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, Tenerife (2017); South London Gallery, London (2016); Acciones territoriales, ExTeresa Arte Actual, Mexico (2014); La Práctica Residency Program, San Juan (2014); Under the Same Sun: Art from Latin America Today, Guggenheim, New York (2014); Un afán incómodo [An Uncomfortable Eagerness] was commissioned by the Botín Foundation for the exhibition Actos de Edición, curated by Nuria Enguita.

Screening and Booking Information

Un afán incómodo [An Uncomfortable Eagerness]
(2011)
Directors: Gilda Mantilla and Raimond Chaves
Peru
Video essay | 21 minutes

English with English and Arabic subtitles This screening is part of the Genealogies in the Middle East and Latin America project, which explores historical and contemporary relationships between artists from these two regions. It unfolds along narratives revealed by the artists' personal accounts that provide critical alternative perspectives and insights by decentralising dominant narratives, schools and paradigms produced and affirmed in the West.

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