Pachacuti: Believe in Me
2019
Installation
Dimensions variable
Carla Garlaschi (1981) researches regionally specific entertainment genres, namely the telenovela and the art exhibition, as syncretic grounds for storytelling. Considering the global conglomerate of contemporary media in all its various forms, Garlaschi works international stereotypes into skits and episodes that satirize the value of nationality in the art world. Blending art, humour, music, performance, and film, Garlaschi uses exaggeration to the point of ‘living the cliché.’ Originally from Chile but living in Stockholm and London, the artist’s own experience of navigating the Nordic art world and its expectations of her as a Latin American informs her scripts and characters.
Pachacuti: Believe in Me is a short film that follows a Chilean businesswoman on a speculative trip around Bolivia’s capital city of La Paz. Garlaschi’s central character has travelled to Bolivia to launch her new product line, which aims to free the Latin American identity from European standards and American Imperialism. The relationship between Chile and Bolivia is troubled, as Chile cut off Bolivia’s access to the sea, restraining its financial development. As a foreigner, ‘La Empresaria’ must convince new clients to trust her. The absurdity of her campaign to define Latin American identity in the face of a neoliberal takeover by Europe and the US is satirized through her image and business model – in one of the final scenes she performs a preacher’s sermon, reading from the book What if Latin America Ruled the World?[1]
[1] Oscar Guardiola, What if Latin America Ruled the World? How the South will take the North through the 21st Century, Bloomsbury Press, 2010.
carlagarlaschi.com