Festival de la Imagen - ISEA2017

Vis is a long term socially engaged creative practice research project that—using digital technology as a tool—examines the consequences of violence on the daily life of civilians in contemporary Mexico. This project addresses the tensions that take place in the smallest human unit/group possible: family. Specifically, Vis focuses on families in both rural and urban areas of Mexico, that have one or more members that, officially, are not kidnapped or killed, but who are not present: absentees [ausentes], that is those taken away by police forces, the military, or by members of drug-cartels. At present the ausentes, their children and/or spouses [not officially orphans or widows yet], are just numbers and statistics in governmental reports. This project reclaims the experiences of these families by attentive listening to them, understanding their stories, and engaging in an active participation about how they would like to be portrayed within the contemporary social ethos. Using the potential of technology through creative practice, Vis collaborates with these families in order to regain the lost power of their voice—a voice that has been silenced—within a dialogue that has yet to start in Mexico.