The Shape of a Pocket Encounter: Mining The Self: Act II: Purity Is Not An Option with Constanza Mendoza
Date: Saturday, November 2nd
Time: 18:00 – 20:00
RSVP at the.shape.of.a.pocket.24@
All are welcome.
Mining The Self: Purity Is Not An Option is a second act-performance that excavates the impact of colonialism, imperialism and dictatorship on Chilean history and my family. Through a multi-scalar approach, I delve into the engineered and sanitized rhetoric that shapes the physical environment, concealing the colonial dispossession of populations in local Sacrifice Zones from Tierra del Fuego to the Atacama Desert—where land and people are discarded for larger geopolitical and economic projects. Mining The Self is an attempt to embody a counter-transparent self that remains a relational and collective mode of resistance, despite the constant threat of silencing.
Act I: I Wish No One An Identity constructs a counter-narrative to colonial identity. Through the excavation of a personal discourse tied to the systemic violence of European settlers—violence that continues today—I excavate my maternal family’s history, originally from Poland and Italy, and their involvement in the dispossession and genocide of the Selk’nam indigenous people in Tierra del Fuego.
Act II: Purity Is Not An Option focuses on my paternal family and the national trauma tied to Chile’s copper industry during Allende’s presidency and Pinochet’s dictatorship. I continue to perform the self—rejecting the myth of purity in both the engineering of landscapes and identities.
BIO
Constanza Mendoza’s practice defies all categories and logic of the art business. She works with different collectives, and it is not about creating closed works, but rather about conversation and exchange. Whether in the form of a game with different roles or a method of institutional criticism, it remains open.
RSVP at the.shape.of.a.pocket.24@
Event held onsite: Donaustr. 84, 12043 Berlin