Specular Caracas: emancipated spectators and spaces in the audiovisual installation Imagen de Caracas

Abstract

In this article I want to go beyond the analysis of concrete features in the multimedia installation Imagen de Caracas. My aim is to take the installation as an index of something possible or new. My argument is that Imagen de Caracas can be interpreted as a speculative form in which, through the integration of plastic and artistic forms, the correspondence between art and community can be indicative of an emancipating function. This function is not isolated: the moment of its emergence coincides with a series of artistic events in both Venezuela and the rest of Latin America that pursue an articulation between aesthetics and politics. Framed in this context, Imagen de Caracas raises a critical mirror reflecting the city of Caracas and its people. In that reflection of a city that looks at itself, Imagen de Caracas attempts to show the emancipatory germ of spaces and spectators.