Compleja superposición, 2024. 4-channel video installation, live broadcasts from Loíza, Utuado, San Juan and Caguas, Puerto Rico.
Compleja superposición is a newly commissioned four-channel video installation that transmits live footage from Loíza, Utuado, San Juan, and Caguas, Puerto Rico. The locations were chosen based on José Luis González’s El país de los cuatro pisos y otros ensayos, 1980, which provides an incisive critique of the complexities of class, identity, and imperialism—both North American and Spanish—using the metaphor of the four floors of a building.
This piece directly connects to the themes explored in Untitled (Valora tu mentira americana), 2018, extending the reflection on the intertwined relationships between colonialism, capitalism, and the struggle for autonomy. The installation serves as a live portrait of Puerto Rico's contemporary power infrastructure, captured through the lens of these four locations. The still-frequent power outages interrupt the broadcast at the Swiss Institute, highlighting the ongoing challenges faced by these communities—challenges rooted not in isolated disasters, but in centuries of colonial exploitation and corruption by the oligarchic political class.
These systemic problems—stemming from over 400 years of Spanish colonization and more than a century of ongoing U.S. imperial control—must not be forgotten or obscured. The focus on "natural disasters" often conceals the deeper historical and political forces that continue to shape Puerto Rico’s present condition.
Installation view, Energies exhibition at the Swiss Institute, New York, 2024.
Advisor: Enityaset Rodríguez-Santos.
