A chronicle of multifaceted Brazilian street artist Eduardo Kobra’s evolution…
Nuevo Mundo, Ep. 01 - Bolivia
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In a country shaped by the resurgence of indigenous power, urban art emerges as a powerful tool for promoting cultural decolonization and challenging the enduring structures of patriarchy. Through vibrant colors and striking designs on city walls, contemporary artists reclaim the legacy of social muralism—a historical tradition that transforms walls into platforms of protest and collective expression.
These murals tell stories of resistance, amplify the voices of those historically marginalized, and bridge the struggles of the past with the pressing challenges of today’s Bolivian society. From bustling streets to towering mountains, urban art in Bolivia stands as a space of resistance, memory, and transformation.
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Distributor subjects
Visual Arts; Urban Studies; Sociology; Anthropology; Culture + Identity; Economics + Social Class Issues; Culture + Identity; Activism; Latin American Studies; Indigenous PeoplesKeywords
WEBVTT
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Bolivia is one of the few countries in the world
whose culture is still alive.
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We are mestizos, indigenous.
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In Bolivia we are still a little classist.
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We want to end that.
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Our territory contains
more than 36 nations.
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Each one with their own perceptions,
world view, spirituality,
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colors,
and way of seeing the world.
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It\'s important to decolonize,
and walk the true path of who we are.
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You cannot decolonize
without abolishing the patriarchy.
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Graffiti is our way
of taking public space, the street,
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the only space of democracy, and history,
in Bolivia and Latin America.
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♪ They call me this and that
\'cos I live my way ♪
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♪ I get dirty from this life
as if it were mud ♪
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♪ I try, I go
if it fails, I’m screwed ♪
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♪ Always true to my desire
elbow to elbow ♪
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♪ The north takes me away
the north is mine ♪
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♪ I write it
every morning is a challenge ♪
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♪ I breathe, watch, and trust ♪
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♪ And when the night comes
I stare at the moon and smile ♪
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♪ Nomad life
wherever life ♪
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♪ Lighter life
Live your way ♪
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♪ Live carefree
live how you want ♪
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♪ Don\'t let anyone set your horizon
or border ♪
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♪ Live without a boss
live without a master ♪
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♪ I\'m led by the beat
of my heart ♪
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♪ I ride the wind
and this song ♪
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♪ They say I\'m lost
I say revolution ♪
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Bolivia... our tradition
of urban art is recent.
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Myself and my colleague Javier
come from the academy,
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we studied.
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We started...
painting and exhibiting in galleries,
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but you don\'t reach most people
in a gallery.
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And we also think it\'s too bureaucratic,
too elitist...
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Three of us got together,
and we decided to do this.
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To take art to the streets.
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Our goal, as Cemetery of Elephants,
is to align with social movements.
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It\'s not a closed group,
but we\'ll always lean left.
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The mural is like
illustrating the moment.
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I salvage that,
because that’s what we do.
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We capture
what people are living.
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In Bolivia we are still a little classist.
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We want to end that.
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\"LIFE IS SIMPLY TO BE SPENT ON OTHERS\".
Luis Espinal
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This is the concept
that we look for in the murals.
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Urban concerns…
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...and we are in this project,
to pay tribute to everyday people.
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Drawing or painting a shoemaker,
has that social stigma.
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It’s an insult here.
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Two taxis drive down the road,
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one gets cut off,
and they insult each other.
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And the first insult that comes out
is \'shoemaker\'.
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Which isn’t their job,
it just means they can\'t drive.
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And I just wanted to do a tribute
to the shoemaker.
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But then I found out that the shoemaker
didn\'t like what I did.
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My portrait bothered him.
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Some people bullied the poor man,
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and he asked me to erase it.
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He said “Young man, please erase it.
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They’re bullying me too much”.
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I said \"Ok\".
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Society itself reacted,
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they told him: “You should be
proud of your job”.
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I came back the next day to erase it,
but I didn\'t.
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He came to me and said:
\"Keep it there, this is what I am,
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just go ahead\".
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And that was a great joy.
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It\'s like empowering people, right?
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CEMETERY OF ELEPHANTS
ART FOR THE PEOPLE
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The year 1952, on April 9,
a need emerges
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to replace the landowning oligarchy
with another state.
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Some political movements start, such as
the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement,
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the Socialist League...
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And the peasants play a role too,
although not a starring one,
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but they participate in some way
in these revolutionary deeds of April 1952.
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President Paz Estenssoro
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knew that the Mexican Revolution
was sung by the artists.
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And he launched a project:
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Bolivian artists would paint murals
praising the revolution\'s achievements.
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The educational reform,
the nationalization of the mines,
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the foundation of the
Bolivian National Oilfields Company...
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Miguel Alandia Pantoja,
who was a trotskyist,
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was called on
by President Paz Estenssoro.
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He was one of the most prolific painters ever
in this country.
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He didn\'t go to art school.
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He was self-taught,
trained in mining centers.
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He participated in
many historical processes
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within our country’s
labor movement.
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Culture is the voice
of an entire people.
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And Alandia Pantoja\'s murals
reflect the feeling of an entire society,
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aware of the transformation, of the need
to change this country through revolution.
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A proletariat revolution.
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Muralism is a monumental work.
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You need to capture the feelings
and the aspiration of an entire people.
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In the Bolivian Revolution of 1952
all these structures are moved.
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And there’s an advance of the indigenous world.
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But it was cut short,
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and the fascist coups came.
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To the right wing,
Alandia Pantoja was the enemy.
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One of the most important artworks he painted
was in the Government Palace.
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They machine-gunned it.
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Then they gathered the pieces,
and drove a steamroller over them.
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It’s said that there are murals here or there...
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There\'s no serious research work,
by the government,
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to rescue all of
Alandia Pantoja’s murals.
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HERNÁN SILES THEATER
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We stumbled upon a big surprise.
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It’s very important for my country,
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and for all of Latin America,
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the discovery of Alandia Pantoja’s mural.
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This mural is located here
in the town of Milluni.
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The importance of this mural for us
is that we\'re rediscovering our history,
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we’re digging again, and...
telling a forgotten story,
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for future generations.
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It was once one of the most important
mining extraction sites.
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It all started with a general strike
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called by the Bolivian Workers’ Center.
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In 1965, the Government entered
with tankettes,
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shooting rapid-fire throughout the town.
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It\'s unknown how many people died,
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there are only stories
that everything was a river of blood.
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Upon entering the town,
before \'la tranca\', there\'s a cross,
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and perhaps that\'s where
many of those sacrificed here are buried.
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It\'s part of this country’s history
of exploitation.
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After that, Alandia Pantoja
came to paint a mural.
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The surprise was finding the wall
collapsing and deteriorated.
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We immediately contacted the authorities,
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because we knew the importance of this mural.
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There\'s moisture on the surface,
at the base.
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Now we’re working away,
several colleagues joined.
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We\'re digging small channels,
ditches,
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to divert the water.
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We\'re excavating memory,
along with the mural.
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And we want to show that in Bolivia,
as in all of Latin America,
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we\'re still resisting,
we\'re still struggling with our murals,
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with what we have,
with the weapons we have.
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Racism is the absolute denial
of the humanity of the other.
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\"The other\" is born when the European ego,
which comes to conquer the New World,
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to invade what will be America,
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positions itself as the \"center\"
in the world context.
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So, for Europe to be the center,
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which it had never been in its entire history,
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they need to create a periphery.
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That periphery is going to be us.
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In the modern world,
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the subjectivity of the elite themselves
is colonized in such a way
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that they become
stewards of dispossession,
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not only of the material wealth
of their country, of their nation,
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but the dispossession
of their own humanity.
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They pay tribute to the empire
in humanity.
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We Bolivians are
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mostly of indigenous origin,
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if not just plain indigenous.
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When Bolivia was founded,
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neither the indigenous world
nor the “cholo” participated.
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Only the white colonist world and
the pseudo-white mestizo world participated,
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and they excluded
the indigenous and \"cholo\" majority.
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René Zabaleta Mercado put it in very clear terms:
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\"The only stable business in Bolivia
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was the natives\".
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And the oligarchy
could give up everything,
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except the oath of superiority
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that they assumed over the natives.
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And this was
with or without liberalism,
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and even
with or without Marxism.
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The new generations
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have to decolonize their consciousness.
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The \"suma qamaña\"...
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is the horizon,
to keep moving forward.
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The \"suma qamaña\" is the community,
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living with nature,
not off of nature.
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To privilege the individual
as part of a community.
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And not the individual by themself.
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To decolonize the consciousness
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is for new generations
to approach this life model.
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Where consumer society
has to disappear.
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In the indigenous world, that doesn\'t exist,
it\'s quite the opposite!
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So we believe that art, culture,
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has to model new generations in that spirit.
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Graffiti is...
in my perception, energy.
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That\'s why young people often do it.
That\'s how I started.
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I couldn\'t sleep, so I was like:
\"What can I do, I want to do something\",
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and I didn’t have a car
to drive around,
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I didn\'t have money to buy alcohol,
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I had some paint
that my parents had left over.
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I took it, I went out every night
and did all this.
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At this age, or in these times,
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if you survive, it’s because you want to be here.
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You like to walk, you do it at night,
you like to think,
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while you walk, you think,
and you go and do it.
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It\'s very easy to paint in La Paz,
it\'s like...
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you just go to a specific place,
and paint.
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It\'s just about having the time,
and the desire.
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I started doing my tag
everywhere,
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the whole city.
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Basically tags.
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But at a certain point I got tired,
I got bored and stuff.
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Then I tried to go a little further,
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and do something that wasn\'t huge,
or too elaborate,
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but it wasn’t a simple tag,
either.
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Then I found a mid-point,
drawing an icon, with simple strokes,
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that means something too.
00:16:10.928 --> 00:16:15.808
Then I took the \"chullo\"
as a character, or element,
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which is very Andean
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The first was very different,
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because he had very big feet,
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he had... the \"chullo\" hat
always had a pointy tip...
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And then, for space reasons,
I had to find another shape, and changed it.
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Until I got to what I do now.
00:16:40.624 --> 00:16:44.920
When I started thinking about
creating this icon,
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I didn\'t think politically.
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But I understand that
it can be transformative too.
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I used this especially
so that people, or I,
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would realize what the country
is going through.
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There was a lot of racism before,
00:17:05.816 --> 00:17:09.903
many people reject our origins,
00:17:10.279 --> 00:17:15.868
so it was like saying:
\"Hey, we\'re all like that, a mix\".
00:17:31.842 --> 00:17:34.887
Also, something
I always include...
00:17:35.095 --> 00:17:40.100
is trying to bring images
to the common people.
00:17:45.189 --> 00:17:47.483
La Paz is also more traditionalist,
00:17:47.733 --> 00:17:51.070
so that struggle is still there,
it isn\'t fully accepted yet.
00:17:57.117 --> 00:17:59.286
In the end, it\'s about...
00:17:59.453 --> 00:18:02.831
creating things
that can wake people up a little.
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You always hear comments,
and then you see the impact of the piece.
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It should provoke something,
whether for better or worse.
00:18:20.432 --> 00:18:22.518
I believe Bolivia entered
00:18:22.601 --> 00:18:25.395
the world of hip-hop graffiti
00:18:25.562 --> 00:18:26.855
from the 1990s on.
00:18:28.190 --> 00:18:31.110
I mean, graffiti is
actually recent in Bolivia.
00:18:33.445 --> 00:18:37.741
You slowly start to find pieces,
to see tags more often,
00:18:37.991 --> 00:18:42.121
with their different styles, the wildstyle,
the bubble letters, and so on.
00:18:43.747 --> 00:18:46.375
Before hip-hop graffiti,
that is, before the 90s,
00:18:46.583 --> 00:18:48.961
the intention was simply
to express oneself.
00:18:49.378 --> 00:18:52.798
And after the 90s,
there’s a kind of desire to express
00:18:52.965 --> 00:18:55.676
one’s own, or a group’s identity
00:18:57.302 --> 00:19:00.973
It’s strongly related to the Tiwanaku culture.
There are Andean crosses ,
00:19:01.140 --> 00:19:06.353
also a lot of colonial-urban
elements, in the city,
00:19:06.478 --> 00:19:09.189
the \"chola\", the Pepino, the Kusillo,
00:19:09.231 --> 00:19:11.900
hip-hop graffiti takes it
as part of its identity.
00:19:15.154 --> 00:19:16.738
I like to say...
00:19:16.822 --> 00:19:21.410
I belong to the second generation
of kids who I saw painting.
00:19:22.995 --> 00:19:27.249
The first generations stood out
by being a little transgressive.
00:19:27.457 --> 00:19:29.543
I grew up watching that work.
00:19:31.378 --> 00:19:35.299
But in the end they turned away or quit,
00:19:35.632 --> 00:19:39.511
having been cut short for...
financial issues.
00:19:39.678 --> 00:19:44.141
There was no support
from the media and stuff.
00:19:46.059 --> 00:19:49.271
For some time, nobody did anything,
00:19:49.730 --> 00:19:52.983
and if there had been other people doing it,
00:19:53.108 --> 00:19:55.527
maybe… this would have grown more.
00:19:56.445 --> 00:20:00.908
Graffiti is not well understood
and is therefore rejected.
00:20:01.783 --> 00:20:02.951
That’s changed.
00:20:03.076 --> 00:20:06.830
Since the 2000s,
there’s some support from institutions,
00:20:07.122 --> 00:20:10.042
to define a kind of urban aesthetic.
00:20:10.792 --> 00:20:12.669
Some places are designated
00:20:12.753 --> 00:20:15.547
for artists to paint
the topics that interest them.
00:20:15.714 --> 00:20:17.883
This benefits artists,
00:20:17.925 --> 00:20:20.177
because they get materials
and space.
00:20:47.329 --> 00:20:50.457
Here in Bolivia, there have never been
good materials,
00:20:50.540 --> 00:20:52.751
there have never been
good sprays,
00:20:52.876 --> 00:20:58.090
the kind needed to really do
a good piece of quality urban art.
00:21:03.136 --> 00:21:08.850
But when you\'re inspired
and feel the need to express yourself,
00:21:09.017 --> 00:21:11.436
you get the means, go out to the streets,
00:21:11.436 --> 00:21:13.063
and you do it anyway.
00:21:19.194 --> 00:21:20.654
Cochabamba has become...
00:21:20.862 --> 00:21:25.075
a super interesting place,
for people from elsewhere to come paint,
00:21:25.200 --> 00:21:27.828
because we’ve shown...
00:21:27.995 --> 00:21:32.374
that there are lots of walls
that are incredible to intervene,
00:21:32.499 --> 00:21:34.626
and people are
super interested in coming,
00:21:34.710 --> 00:21:37.379
and we’re also eager
to paint more.
00:21:47.055 --> 00:21:51.977
Painting here, to be honest,
I wouldn\'t have imagined it.
00:21:52.352 --> 00:21:54.271
With permission, I mean.
00:21:54.438 --> 00:21:56.523
I’ve always tried to go down,
00:21:56.648 --> 00:21:57.899
and paint illegally,
00:21:58.066 --> 00:22:00.944
It\'s always been my idea to do that.
00:22:01.111 --> 00:22:02.738
But like this, with permission, no…
00:22:02.946 --> 00:22:04.114
It’s a challenge for me.
00:22:06.742 --> 00:22:10.120
The place itself tells me
what I have to paint.
00:22:10.495 --> 00:22:13.123
I get to the place,
I feel it, I’m there,
00:22:13.290 --> 00:22:14.708
I see the people’s vibes,
00:22:14.833 --> 00:22:17.461
and I try to be faithful to that.
00:22:19.796 --> 00:22:21.965
I started doing stencils.
00:22:22.299 --> 00:22:26.178
I was a young boy then,
a little angry at the world.
00:22:26.303 --> 00:22:29.389
I wanted to be a little rebellious,
00:22:29.473 --> 00:22:31.850
so I didn’t like art in itself,
00:22:31.933 --> 00:22:33.977
but I was somehow
doing art,
00:22:34.061 --> 00:22:36.730
so that\'s why I called myself
\"Mata-arte\" (\"Art-Killer\").
00:22:37.814 --> 00:22:41.610
My first stencils were little skulls,
I made them everywhere.
00:22:41.943 --> 00:22:45.447
I didn\'t like to portray people,
00:22:45.614 --> 00:22:48.075
so instead of making them
white or brown,
00:22:48.241 --> 00:22:50.410
with green or black eyes,
00:22:50.535 --> 00:22:53.038
I just made skulls,
you know?
00:22:53.330 --> 00:22:57.042
In the end,
we’re all skeletons inside.
00:23:02.798 --> 00:23:07.969
I was a big fan of horror movies
from the 1950s, like “The Fly\"…
00:23:08.136 --> 00:23:10.931
I used to listen lots of punk, hardcore...
00:23:13.683 --> 00:23:16.937
Part of my family
is into folklore, so…
00:23:17.270 --> 00:23:20.273
I combined that
with my horror side.
00:23:36.081 --> 00:23:39.126
As in all cities,
there\'s been a development of...
00:23:39.334 --> 00:23:42.337
a spontaneous movement
of young people,
00:23:43.380 --> 00:23:48.718
basically a counter-culture, which
appropriates very visible public spaces,
00:23:49.052 --> 00:23:50.512
to say something.
00:23:51.805 --> 00:23:53.849
I think urban art
has that strength,
00:23:53.932 --> 00:23:57.811
it starts from what’s local,
from the street,
00:23:57.936 --> 00:24:00.564
and seeing something
that speaks to you,
00:24:00.772 --> 00:24:03.692
to the explosion that it has now
as far as social media.
00:24:03.775 --> 00:24:05.527
There is no other
artistic discipline
00:24:05.694 --> 00:24:08.155
that is spread as much
as the photos of murals
00:24:08.196 --> 00:24:09.281
all over the world.
00:24:18.832 --> 00:24:24.337
All the kids here
are going out to paint,
00:24:24.463 --> 00:24:26.715
I think the identity...
00:24:26.798 --> 00:24:29.551
in urban art, you can feel it.
00:24:29.759 --> 00:24:34.347
People try to show where they\'re from,
and what their culture is,
00:24:34.723 --> 00:24:37.267
and that has defined an aesthetic.
00:24:41.438 --> 00:24:44.649
When we organized
the first biennial, in 2011,
00:24:44.691 --> 00:24:47.402
we decided to bet on urban art,
00:24:47.569 --> 00:24:49.696
precisely to move outside a bit,
00:24:49.821 --> 00:24:52.115
to connect more
with the neighborhood people,
00:24:52.365 --> 00:24:56.786
to make art, and artistic language,
more accessible to the city.
00:25:01.249 --> 00:25:06.296
Five or six years ago,
you rarely found anything on the street.
00:25:07.005 --> 00:25:08.673
Nobody came,
and well,
00:25:08.840 --> 00:25:11.134
they launched the Urban Art Biennial,
00:25:11.301 --> 00:25:12.677
and created a big boom.
00:25:12.928 --> 00:25:15.972
They bring people
from other countries,
00:25:16.264 --> 00:25:19.392
who are interested in the city.
00:25:23.271 --> 00:25:26.024
It\'s the fruit of sustained
collaboration and dialogue,
00:25:26.525 --> 00:25:28.860
the kids who are painting more
in the streets.
00:25:29.277 --> 00:25:31.947
And it helps to consolidate this,
00:25:32.280 --> 00:25:35.367
it shows they could paint
really good murals,
00:25:35.700 --> 00:25:37.619
and people start to appreciate them,
00:25:37.702 --> 00:25:40.956
and outside artists also start
to pay attention.
00:25:41.414 --> 00:25:44.334
Before no one had Cochabamba as a reference,
00:25:44.501 --> 00:25:45.961
and now they do.
00:26:02.519 --> 00:26:04.563
In the indigenous worldview,
00:26:05.313 --> 00:26:07.440
death does not exist.
00:26:08.525 --> 00:26:11.152
It’s another change
of state of matter,
00:26:11.528 --> 00:26:13.196
and it’s circular.
00:26:13.488 --> 00:26:16.700
You’re born, you reproduce, you die.
00:26:17.117 --> 00:26:19.244
You’re born, you reproduce, you die.
00:26:21.580 --> 00:26:24.165
On November 8,
in La Paz
00:26:24.416 --> 00:26:27.377
there’s this ceremony of the skulls,
00:26:27.502 --> 00:26:29.796
which in La Paz
is called \"Las Ñatitas\".
00:26:32.966 --> 00:26:36.177
A loved one dies,
the skull is preserved,
00:26:36.386 --> 00:26:38.430
and it\'s taken out for the holidays,
00:26:38.471 --> 00:26:40.640
it\'s decorated, people put candles on it,
00:26:40.890 --> 00:26:42.684
they give it food offerings.
00:26:43.101 --> 00:26:45.645
And it’s a beautiful tradition that…
00:26:46.146 --> 00:26:49.232
helps you remember
people who are gone.
00:26:49.524 --> 00:26:52.444
And the offerings make them
take care of you,
00:26:52.652 --> 00:26:54.696
always by your side.
00:26:57.407 --> 00:27:02.454
The “Ñatitas” relate
to the concept of the cycle of life.
00:27:03.580 --> 00:27:05.206
Because if someone
is missing,
00:27:06.249 --> 00:27:08.501
the Jach\'a Ajayu is in danger,
00:27:08.793 --> 00:27:10.795
the big soul of the world.
00:27:11.171 --> 00:27:16.593
That\'s why this rite is carried out,
so that the dead join that chain.
00:27:17.010 --> 00:27:19.596
So that nobody’s missing
in that circle.
00:27:28.271 --> 00:27:31.149
Salvador (aka Salvaje) and I,
00:27:31.399 --> 00:27:34.569
decided to organize, very quickly, last year,
00:27:34.736 --> 00:27:36.488
this event called “Ñatinta”,
00:27:36.821 --> 00:27:38.698
dedicated to the Ñatita.
00:27:40.283 --> 00:27:43.828
The idea was to include all this
in the murals.
00:27:44.537 --> 00:27:47.457
And we said, half jokingly:
00:27:47.666 --> 00:27:50.043
“It would be great
to have a festival here,
00:27:50.126 --> 00:27:51.461
to be able to paint the cemetery,
00:27:51.628 --> 00:27:53.546
but will they let us paint?\"
00:27:54.089 --> 00:27:57.175
We talked to the cemetery management,
00:27:57.384 --> 00:28:01.054
and we were met with very open people,
very enlightened, I think,
00:28:01.596 --> 00:28:04.307
who proposed that we paint
inside the cemetery.
00:28:04.641 --> 00:28:06.976
We got enthusiastic,
\"Ok, we\'ll do it\".
00:28:08.311 --> 00:28:12.482
Of about 200 available walls,
we painted about 15.
00:28:17.779 --> 00:28:20.907
While we were painting,
most of the people passing by
00:28:20.990 --> 00:28:23.702
were delighted.
And that surprised me.
00:28:23.702 --> 00:28:26.037
Because we thought:
\"How will passersby receive it?\"
00:28:27.831 --> 00:28:32.335
That event, in a few days,
really made a difference.
00:28:32.585 --> 00:28:37.340
The impact, when someone enters,
is totally different than it was before.
00:28:42.846 --> 00:28:46.725
Our Latin American culture
is baroque,
00:28:47.392 --> 00:28:48.685
no matter how you look at it.
00:28:51.604 --> 00:28:55.150
Therefore, European intrusion,
minimalism,
00:28:56.067 --> 00:29:01.489
with its simplicity and consistency,
will not enter this culture easily.
00:29:03.992 --> 00:29:07.787
It\'s visible, because we\'re full of nature,
even the high plateau,
00:29:08.538 --> 00:29:11.791
the landscape itself gives us joy.
00:29:11.958 --> 00:29:13.585
Our air is still very clean.
00:29:13.710 --> 00:29:18.298
Here in Bolivia there’s no pollution
like in Santiago or Lima.
00:29:18.423 --> 00:29:23.720
So I believe that\'s why
saturated colors are widely used here.
00:29:24.345 --> 00:29:30.977
The Andeans used to prefer
the colors of earth, of terracotta.
00:29:31.227 --> 00:29:34.689
But nowadays that has changed
into very vivid colors.
00:29:42.489 --> 00:29:47.035
I don\'t think it\'s an anthropological rupture,
or a lack of respect,
00:29:47.118 --> 00:29:50.079
but a contemporary interpretation.
00:29:53.082 --> 00:29:54.501
We, as Andeans,
00:29:54.626 --> 00:29:59.589
despite being told the colors
we use here are loud,
00:29:59.714 --> 00:30:01.758
it’s our thing.
00:30:01.925 --> 00:30:06.930
Europeans are dazzled
by that dynamic loudness.
00:30:07.347 --> 00:30:09.432
And it’s very unlikely
00:30:09.557 --> 00:30:12.018
that it would be taken from us.
00:30:12.143 --> 00:30:14.020
I think there\'s a resistance there.
00:30:27.784 --> 00:30:30.453
My grandmother used to say
that vivid colors
00:30:30.662 --> 00:30:32.872
are to scare away
evil spirits,
00:30:33.081 --> 00:30:36.751
and not to live in darkness,
but to live life in joy.
00:30:47.011 --> 00:30:51.766
My paintings are like an offering,
as a thank you to Mother Earth,
00:30:51.933 --> 00:30:55.603
because that\'s the meaning of man,
the inheritance we\'ve received.
00:31:00.483 --> 00:31:03.319
The foundations of my art
are the Andean worldview.
00:31:03.945 --> 00:31:07.532
Respect for the air,
respect for fire,
00:31:07.574 --> 00:31:09.826
respect for Pachamama,
00:31:09.951 --> 00:31:14.080
respect for others,
living in community.
00:31:15.415 --> 00:31:18.543
Those foundations,
those moral principles
00:31:18.626 --> 00:31:21.379
of harmonic coexistence
with all human beings,
00:31:21.504 --> 00:31:23.798
have become part of my work.
00:31:24.632 --> 00:31:27.844
Mamani wouldn’t exist
if it weren’t for his identity,
00:31:27.969 --> 00:31:30.638
his community,
his perceptions,
00:31:31.014 --> 00:31:33.892
and the pride
of being what we are.
00:31:38.855 --> 00:31:42.108
One of the other principles
of the Andean worldview,
00:31:42.275 --> 00:31:45.737
is the sharing, the collectivity,
the “ayni”.
00:31:46.529 --> 00:31:48.990
\"Ayni\" means reciprocity.
00:31:49.407 --> 00:31:52.452
You receive something
and you have to share with the community.
00:31:52.994 --> 00:31:55.580
That principle, in art…
00:31:55.622 --> 00:31:59.375
there also comes a time
when art has to be for everyone.
00:31:59.626 --> 00:32:04.005
And the murals become
a representation of that expression.
00:32:12.263 --> 00:32:16.184
When they invited me,
they told me:
00:32:16.476 --> 00:32:20.563
\"Mamani,
we\'re painting seven buildings,
00:32:20.730 --> 00:32:25.485
for people who don\'t have a home,
it’s social housing\".
00:32:28.571 --> 00:32:31.240
And I said: \"Ok, my pleasure\".
00:32:31.491 --> 00:32:35.912
But normally the Andean man
relates with the earth.
00:32:35.995 --> 00:32:38.456
They experience a relationship
with the earth.
00:32:38.915 --> 00:32:40.875
But since we’re already urban,
00:32:41.084 --> 00:32:44.128
then having a building
breaks this relationship.
00:32:45.797 --> 00:32:47.382
We’ve made it possible,
00:32:47.507 --> 00:32:50.426
so we’ll do something
that represents the community.
00:32:52.845 --> 00:32:54.514
And the concept of the \"wiphala\",
the flag.
00:32:54.639 --> 00:32:56.432
Let’s not forget that,
in the wiphala,
00:32:56.516 --> 00:32:59.060
each color represents a community,
00:32:59.143 --> 00:33:02.063
it\'s the collision of two rainbows,
and the wiphala is born.
00:33:02.855 --> 00:33:06.317
Our territory contains
more than 36 nations,
00:33:06.526 --> 00:33:08.403
each one with their perceptions,
00:33:08.528 --> 00:33:10.446
spiritual worldview, colors,
00:33:10.571 --> 00:33:12.323
and way of seeing the world.
00:33:17.495 --> 00:33:19.914
There are the seven colors
in the rainbow,
00:33:20.081 --> 00:33:23.459
each color represents
an important symbol.
00:33:23.835 --> 00:33:27.463
The red building,
where the Amauta is,
00:33:27.588 --> 00:33:30.967
is the one who teaches
and bestows the wisdom
00:33:31.134 --> 00:33:32.885
of the Andean worldview.
00:33:35.722 --> 00:33:40.435
In the blue building is Mallku,
a winged being,
00:33:40.518 --> 00:33:44.022
so it represents the world above,
the Alak Pacha.
00:33:45.857 --> 00:33:47.483
In the green building,
00:33:47.650 --> 00:33:50.486
we’ll see Jamp\'atu,
the toad,
00:33:50.570 --> 00:33:53.740
which represents
fertility, fecundity.
00:33:55.533 --> 00:33:58.453
In the yellow one,
that\'s the coca man.
00:33:58.578 --> 00:34:00.538
Our eyes are coca leaves,
00:34:00.663 --> 00:34:02.498
our mouth is a coca leaf.
00:34:02.623 --> 00:34:04.876
We can see and talk
with the coca leaf.
00:34:05.209 --> 00:34:07.503
It’s sacred and ancient.
00:34:08.337 --> 00:34:09.797
And here in the violet one,
00:34:09.922 --> 00:34:13.301
one of the most important colors
in the Andean worldview,
00:34:13.509 --> 00:34:14.886
there\'s the Condor Child.
00:34:15.011 --> 00:34:18.181
They’re are our children,
our grandchildren, our nephews.
00:34:18.389 --> 00:34:20.141
And to have that lineage,
00:34:20.224 --> 00:34:23.269
we have to teach them
what the Andean worldview represents.
00:34:23.561 --> 00:34:26.230
Respect for the air, respect for fire…
00:34:26.314 --> 00:34:29.817
They’re the ones
that will lead that land.
00:34:35.198 --> 00:34:37.075
I think the people who will see it,
00:34:37.283 --> 00:34:41.079
the 336 families that will live here
and the people around them,
00:34:41.204 --> 00:34:45.083
will know that each of these murals
is part of our worldview.
00:34:45.124 --> 00:34:47.376
It\'s information about who we are.
00:34:48.920 --> 00:34:53.758
Everybody fulfills a mission:
engineers, architects.
00:34:54.217 --> 00:34:56.135
I bring the colors.
00:34:56.844 --> 00:35:00.640
In the end, what we do
is for the community.
00:35:20.409 --> 00:35:23.579
El Alto is the youngest city
in the country,
00:35:24.080 --> 00:35:26.958
therefore there\'s a lot of migration
from the nearest villages.
00:35:28.251 --> 00:35:31.212
If you go and paint at night illegally,
00:35:31.295 --> 00:35:33.339
they might mistake you for a thief,
00:35:33.422 --> 00:35:34.465
a rapist, anything.
00:35:37.051 --> 00:35:39.679
The moment they find you,
if you try to explain to them:
00:35:39.846 --> 00:35:41.806
\"I\'m doing art\",
00:35:42.056 --> 00:35:43.891
or \"I\'m just writing my name\",
00:35:44.392 --> 00:35:45.726
they won\'t understand.
00:35:46.435 --> 00:35:49.272
It\'s very complicated
to paint up there.
00:35:49.438 --> 00:35:53.776
If you don\'t know people there,
or there\'s a project, stuff like that.
00:35:56.529 --> 00:35:59.949
CAUGHT THIEF WILL BE BURNED
El Alto is interesting, because…
00:35:59.949 --> 00:36:01.951
SUSPICIOUS CAR WILL BE BURNED
... people no longer feel safe.
00:36:01.951 --> 00:36:03.536
Nor do they trust the institutions
00:36:03.578 --> 00:36:04.996
that should give them safety.
00:36:05.413 --> 00:36:09.000
So they \"protect\" themselves,
so to speak.
00:36:09.000 --> 00:36:11.544
DRINKING IS BANNED ON THIS STREET
Signs that are sort of \"death sentences\",
00:36:11.544 --> 00:36:13.546
CAUGHT THIEF WILL BE BURNED
Signs that are sort of \"death sentences\",
00:36:13.546 --> 00:36:16.174
like \"Caught thief will be burned\",
00:36:16.382 --> 00:36:18.551
\"Here we lynch thieves\".
00:36:18.676 --> 00:36:21.679
So, it’s very aggressive, but...
00:36:21.846 --> 00:36:23.639
it seems effective.
00:36:23.764 --> 00:36:27.852
They contribute in a chilling way,
to construct the graphic style of a city.
00:36:29.854 --> 00:36:33.482
El Alto, where we are,
I think, is a stronghold…
00:36:33.816 --> 00:36:38.154
…of the Andean force, the Aymara force.
00:36:40.573 --> 00:36:44.076
A city where you can even make
political changes,
00:36:44.202 --> 00:36:47.538
or movements where people
have nothing to lose,
00:36:47.663 --> 00:36:52.001
because they have their principles,
their rebellion.
00:37:04.388 --> 00:37:09.810
The \"Movement to Socialism\"
is not just another government,
00:37:10.269 --> 00:37:14.023
because it was born
out of a popular revolt.
00:37:14.482 --> 00:37:18.319
In 2003, Bolivian society proposes
00:37:18.402 --> 00:37:20.947
the nationalization of hydrocarbons,
00:37:21.280 --> 00:37:24.158
which are the most important
natural resource today,
00:37:24.659 --> 00:37:26.744
sending away
transnational corporations,
00:37:27.119 --> 00:37:30.414
the sovereignty of the country
over our resources,
00:37:30.665 --> 00:37:33.084
the need for a constituent assembly.
00:37:33.376 --> 00:37:36.128
It was basically
a kind of massive agenda,
00:37:36.462 --> 00:37:39.799
not only from a supposed
indigenous vanguard,
00:37:40.049 --> 00:37:41.926
but also from many people
00:37:42.009 --> 00:37:45.221
who didn’t belong
to any social organization,
00:37:45.346 --> 00:37:47.807
and who joined the popular revolt.
00:37:47.974 --> 00:37:50.184
It wasn\'t just about
overthrowing a government,
00:37:50.309 --> 00:37:53.145
but about questioning a whole system,
and a whole state.
00:38:00.778 --> 00:38:05.950
And in that context, Evo Morales
takes power in a kind of vacuum,
00:38:06.325 --> 00:38:11.080
created by social organizations,
where no party managed to take hold.
00:38:12.331 --> 00:38:13.791
Many of us
00:38:14.125 --> 00:38:17.128
started campaigning for President Morales,
00:38:17.420 --> 00:38:18.796
because there was hope
00:38:19.213 --> 00:38:22.300
that he would finally
include the indigenous world.
00:38:22.466 --> 00:38:24.260
And establish a plurinational state.
00:38:24.844 --> 00:38:26.762
It was a time of anointing.
00:38:28.848 --> 00:38:31.517
Many ephemeral murals
were painted.
00:38:32.184 --> 00:38:35.855
The mayor\'s office or the police
erased them,
00:38:35.980 --> 00:38:38.232
but for us it was
like a new canvas,
00:38:38.482 --> 00:38:40.318
we would paint again.
00:38:41.652 --> 00:38:45.197
It was ephemeral art
that had an immediate purpose,
00:38:45.323 --> 00:38:49.076
which was to position the figure
of the first indigenous president.
00:38:49.702 --> 00:38:53.706
\"You are appointed
as constitutional president...\"
00:38:58.127 --> 00:39:01.672
This acceptance of the Andean,
the indigenous,
00:39:01.756 --> 00:39:04.342
had existed long before Evo Morales.
00:39:05.634 --> 00:39:08.262
I think Evo Morales is the result of that.
00:39:08.763 --> 00:39:09.764
He became president
00:39:09.930 --> 00:39:12.892
precisely because there was already
a desire to identify ourselves
00:39:13.142 --> 00:39:17.688
with what we believed to be ours,
in this case, the Andean identity,
00:39:17.772 --> 00:39:20.316
and after Evo Morales,
it became official.
00:39:21.650 --> 00:39:25.863
In El Alto, young people are more active,
they are more politicized.
00:39:26.572 --> 00:39:29.367
And there’s a rejection
of the president,
00:39:29.492 --> 00:39:31.702
but there are also people
who support him.
00:39:32.119 --> 00:39:33.496
Where is it expressed?
00:39:33.537 --> 00:39:34.705
It’s on the walls.
00:39:36.123 --> 00:39:40.127
From insults directed at the president,
to praise of the president.
00:39:42.338 --> 00:39:45.508
Those kinds of battles
on the walls,
00:39:45.633 --> 00:39:46.926
especially in El Alto,
00:39:47.426 --> 00:39:50.346
all are centered around the president.
00:39:52.932 --> 00:39:54.558
Either you accept him or you reject him,
00:39:54.600 --> 00:39:56.727
there’s no middle ground.
00:39:58.104 --> 00:40:00.147
They are small cells
that are formed from…
00:40:00.523 --> 00:40:01.732
a neighborhood, let’s say.
00:40:01.816 --> 00:40:04.985
There’s a social center,
they hire two painters,
00:40:05.069 --> 00:40:07.113
or some friends get together,
00:40:07.279 --> 00:40:09.031
to paint political messages .
00:40:09.365 --> 00:40:11.409
Here it has become popular culture.
00:40:11.617 --> 00:40:14.078
I participated in that,
I was hired to do that once.
00:40:14.161 --> 00:40:16.330
To go and cover the walls
with “Yes”, “No”...
00:40:16.455 --> 00:40:19.166
you get hired, you do it,
and you get paid.
00:40:21.836 --> 00:40:24.755
Art is embedded in politics.
00:40:25.214 --> 00:40:28.259
That effervescence
still exists in Bolivia.
00:40:28.676 --> 00:40:31.011
But there\'s also disappointment.
00:40:37.017 --> 00:40:38.936
I\'ve painted a wall
00:40:39.061 --> 00:40:42.314
about the parties
that fight for power,
00:40:42.523 --> 00:40:44.150
within my context, for example.
00:40:47.611 --> 00:40:49.655
It is a \"tinku\" fight.
00:40:49.822 --> 00:40:51.240
The aim of this dance
00:40:51.323 --> 00:40:53.451
is the bloodshed
for the Pachamama,
00:40:53.617 --> 00:40:55.161
for a good harvest.
00:40:57.830 --> 00:40:59.915
I have taken this dance
as a reference,
00:40:59.957 --> 00:41:01.876
with the colors of the political parties.
00:41:02.168 --> 00:41:04.837
And with a scene behind,
in gray,
00:41:04.920 --> 00:41:08.466
showing people’s indifference,
when this is happening.
00:41:12.011 --> 00:41:15.848
This is what the political parties’ fights
represent to me.
00:41:22.104 --> 00:41:28.027
We all have the possibility of...
expressing what we believe to be right,
00:41:28.402 --> 00:41:32.698
and propagandizing our ideas
in any way we can.
00:41:34.283 --> 00:41:37.953
I’m lucky to be able
to paint facing the street,
00:41:38.037 --> 00:41:40.581
and have a free billboard.
00:41:42.041 --> 00:41:44.293
And what better way
than to do it on this scale,
00:41:44.335 --> 00:41:46.253
and with this crowd of people.
00:42:07.483 --> 00:42:11.070
KSR starts as a project
between me and Puriskiri.
00:42:12.780 --> 00:42:14.907
He mostly makes characters,
00:42:15.407 --> 00:42:18.494
and I make letters,
so we complement one another,
00:42:18.911 --> 00:42:22.873
and we maintain a graphic line
that we’ve been managing.
00:42:32.758 --> 00:42:36.053
Basically the question was:
What will we paint? What will we write?
00:42:36.220 --> 00:42:37.888
And why do we write it?
00:42:37.972 --> 00:42:41.809
And how do we make it shorter,
to have more impact,
00:42:41.892 --> 00:42:44.144
how do we make you understand
in 3 seconds.
00:42:44.562 --> 00:42:46.897
It was a dialogue
between both of us.
00:42:53.153 --> 00:42:56.031
It is very difficult to meet
with other people out there.
00:42:56.156 --> 00:42:59.118
Because there\'s always advertising
selling you something,
00:42:59.243 --> 00:43:00.953
there’s the authority,
00:43:01.036 --> 00:43:03.289
or something else
that tells you what to do and stuff…
00:43:07.209 --> 00:43:09.295
And you find something
that simply
00:43:09.336 --> 00:43:12.172
makes you think in some way,
good or bad,
00:43:12.715 --> 00:43:13.966
...so that’s the point.
00:43:18.053 --> 00:43:20.055
DEMOCRACY
00:43:21.807 --> 00:43:25.352
I think we have a strong stigma
with gender violence, so to speak.
00:43:26.353 --> 00:43:31.233
Much of the violence
is against women,
00:43:31.483 --> 00:43:35.279
who play a fundamental role
in trade.
00:43:35.696 --> 00:43:39.241
If you go to La Cancha market,
all the merchants are women.
00:43:46.040 --> 00:43:50.836
A subject that I like to deal with
in painting.
00:43:53.213 --> 00:43:58.886
I\'ve tried to use the activity
they carry out, which is trade,
00:43:59.094 --> 00:44:03.140
to say something about
what they sell us.
00:44:03.432 --> 00:44:08.020
They should sell us education,
they should sell us historical memory.
00:44:10.314 --> 00:44:14.318
I had to paint, for example,
in the alleyway where flowers are sold,
00:44:14.652 --> 00:44:17.071
where all the people
who work there are women.
00:44:17.780 --> 00:44:19.698
There I had the chance
to portray a woman,
00:44:19.823 --> 00:44:23.202
with a bouquet of flowers
inside a Molotov cocktail.
00:44:39.426 --> 00:44:43.472
I believe that the streets of Bolivia
are full of poetry.
00:44:44.139 --> 00:44:50.521
I love the streets of La Paz,
El Alto, Cochambamba.
00:44:50.979 --> 00:44:52.981
I believe that the poetics of the street
00:44:53.065 --> 00:44:54.608
has been installed by women.
00:44:54.733 --> 00:44:55.859
Definitely.
00:44:59.905 --> 00:45:01.699
They’ve filled it with colors,
00:45:01.865 --> 00:45:04.368
they’ve filled it with atmosphere.
00:45:05.619 --> 00:45:07.413
With meaning, with feeling.
00:45:07.579 --> 00:45:09.998
The way that women
have occupied the street
00:45:10.290 --> 00:45:13.460
is poetics in a public space.
00:45:19.341 --> 00:45:22.261
Nothing can beat these poetics.
00:45:22.469 --> 00:45:28.892
Nothing lives up to a woman
napping at her fruit stand.
00:45:31.186 --> 00:45:37.025
And it\'s massive, it\'s fabulous,
it\'s a tremendous takeover of the street.
00:45:37.317 --> 00:45:41.029
A street that in Bolivia is
completely alive…
00:45:41.196 --> 00:45:43.991
Completely… flammable.
00:46:32.414 --> 00:46:36.502
For us, graffiti is a way
to provide an additional dimension
00:46:36.668 --> 00:46:39.129
to the street,
which we consider to be
00:46:39.254 --> 00:46:42.716
the only space
of democracy and history,
00:46:42.883 --> 00:46:45.052
in Bolivia and in Latin America.
00:46:45.552 --> 00:46:47.596
We sign as \"Women Creating\",
00:46:47.805 --> 00:46:50.140
because it\'s very important to us
that people know
00:46:50.265 --> 00:46:51.809
that behind that phrase
00:46:51.892 --> 00:46:53.185
there’s a thought,
00:46:53.435 --> 00:46:56.271
a movement, a group of women.
00:46:57.564 --> 00:47:00.484
And also because
we take responsibility for what we say.
00:47:05.239 --> 00:47:09.201
BLOOD, BONES
THE FOOTPRINTS OF PROGRESS
00:47:12.371 --> 00:47:16.083
From the start we thought of creativity
00:47:16.083 --> 00:47:17.709
as an instrument in the struggle,
00:47:18.085 --> 00:47:21.547
so it was a challenge for us
to consider new languages,
00:47:21.630 --> 00:47:24.591
and new forms
of political manifestation.
00:47:24.758 --> 00:47:27.469
The judiciary has proven it\'s corrupt!
00:47:27.636 --> 00:47:31.348
The judiciary has proven
its lack of professionalism!
00:47:31.431 --> 00:47:34.309
NEITHER THE EARTH NOR THE WOMEN
ARE CONQUEST TERRITORY
00:47:34.309 --> 00:47:36.019
For us graffiti has always been
00:47:36.019 --> 00:47:38.397
an instrument of
denunciation, on one hand,
00:47:38.522 --> 00:47:40.524
but also of provocation, of irony…
00:47:40.691 --> 00:47:43.068
and also a poetic language.
00:47:43.944 --> 00:47:47.364
EVO, YOUR BETRAYAL OF THE PACHA
ENDED YOUR GOOD STREAK
00:48:03.505 --> 00:48:05.924
EVE WILL NOT COME
FROM EVO’S RIB
00:48:08.051 --> 00:48:10.012
We understand feminism,
00:48:10.804 --> 00:48:12.431
among many things,
00:48:12.681 --> 00:48:16.977
as a symbolic struggle,
a dispute of symbols,
00:48:17.352 --> 00:48:20.898
and as a dispute of social imageries.
00:48:23.025 --> 00:48:25.360
Since we founded the movement,
00:48:26.069 --> 00:48:28.906
we were clear
that we needed to get a space.
00:48:29.114 --> 00:48:32.492
Then we made the effort
to generate our own space.
00:48:32.618 --> 00:48:34.369
The first was La Carcajada (The Laughter).
00:48:34.786 --> 00:48:37.915
It was an affordable food court
for many years,
00:48:38.040 --> 00:48:41.877
which also worked for us to meet, study,
00:48:42.002 --> 00:48:44.671
and any woman could get there.
00:48:44.963 --> 00:48:48.842
And then, we decided to jump
from La Carcajada,
00:48:49.593 --> 00:48:51.136
to a house...
00:48:51.511 --> 00:48:56.224
that would allow another concept to thrive
that we had already developed,
00:48:56.391 --> 00:48:58.185
and which was not present
at La Carcajada.
00:48:59.686 --> 00:49:02.022
We want a feminism
that can be eaten,
00:49:02.147 --> 00:49:04.816
touched, and seen.
00:49:05.609 --> 00:49:09.237
For that, we’ve developed
this concept of concrete politics,
00:49:09.404 --> 00:49:13.992
which is to translate ideology
into service practices.
00:49:16.703 --> 00:49:18.038
Here we have
00:49:18.246 --> 00:49:23.043
the most prestigious and interesting
feminist service against sexist violence
00:49:23.085 --> 00:49:24.670
in the whole country.
00:49:26.129 --> 00:49:28.131
We have a self-defense school.
00:49:28.423 --> 00:49:30.884
We have a radio station,
we have accommodation.
00:49:31.510 --> 00:49:35.597
Women Creating is today
a reference of struggle,
00:49:36.014 --> 00:49:38.976
of rebellion, of resistance,
00:49:39.476 --> 00:49:40.811
and of proposals
00:49:40.978 --> 00:49:44.564
for the whole of Bolivian women, firstly,
00:49:44.815 --> 00:49:47.442
but also for the whole
of Bolivian society.
00:49:54.241 --> 00:49:56.535
We\'re like history books, right?
00:49:56.702 --> 00:49:58.829
That show us
what has happened, a massacre,
00:49:58.912 --> 00:50:01.039
the injustice that exists at the moment,
00:50:01.248 --> 00:50:03.041
and we\'re on it, in constant struggle.
00:50:04.167 --> 00:50:05.877
To not forget.
00:50:08.296 --> 00:50:10.507
Everything that happens
at the political level,
00:50:10.674 --> 00:50:14.469
reconfigures what happens
at the visual level within cities.
00:50:16.054 --> 00:50:18.223
And I believe that
in about 2 or 3 years,
00:50:18.515 --> 00:50:21.601
things will change again
here in Bolivia.
00:50:26.648 --> 00:50:29.276
It\'s complicated to talk about
a so-called \"Bolivian art\".
00:50:29.484 --> 00:50:32.863
I\'ve taken these issues myself,
these icons,
00:50:33.113 --> 00:50:36.908
trying to identify ourselves,
to make them ours.
00:50:41.329 --> 00:50:44.624
It opens young people\'s minds
to other ways of expressing themselves,
00:50:44.750 --> 00:50:48.086
to other means of living,
to other types of information.
00:50:50.130 --> 00:50:52.090
People will always take to the street.
00:50:52.257 --> 00:50:56.136
It\'s a moment to show a little
of the roots we have.
00:50:57.763 --> 00:51:01.516
Muralism has always been a rebellion.
00:51:02.142 --> 00:51:06.313
To take spaces that the museum
and the gallery don\'t allow you...
00:51:06.563 --> 00:51:10.150
In the art world,
muralism is also a reaction...
00:51:10.317 --> 00:51:12.611
to these established rules.
00:51:13.195 --> 00:51:16.782
We began to express
where we live,
00:51:17.157 --> 00:51:19.618
where we eat,
where we do our rituals,
00:51:19.826 --> 00:51:21.995
and to know that we have to be
00:51:22.037 --> 00:51:23.580
proud of who we are.
Distributor: Pragda Films
Length: 53 minutes
Date: 2020
Genre: Expository
Language: Spanish
Grade: High School, College, Adult
Color/BW:
Closed Captioning: Available
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