Beatriz Santiago Muñoz, Black Beach / Forces / The Dead / Camp (2016)
This film is part of the exhibition Shoreline Movements, a program of non-fiction films curated by Erika Balsom and Grégory Castéra (Council), in a space designed by Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, for the Taipei Biennial 2020.
In 2003, following widespread protests, the United States Navy withdrew from Vieques, an island off the eastern coast of Puerto Rico that it had used since the 1940s for weapons testing and training, leaving behind serious environmental damage that many residents claim is responsible for the elevated rates of illness that exist in the area. Beatriz Santiago Muñoz attends to the reclaiming of this once militarized space by local communities as they fight for decontamination. She is a witness to their actions but refrains from any explanation, preferring instead to craft lyrical evocations of place. Black Beach / Forces / The Dead / Camp assembles a silent chorus dedicated to acts of repair, finding beauty and renewal amidst the ongoing trauma of expropriated and poisoned land. 1 2
Beatriz Santiago Muñoz
Black Beach / Forces / The Dead / Camp
Film, 8:00
2016
CAMERA / EDITING
Beatriz Santiago Muñoz
IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE
Charlie Velásquez
Dondi Cruz
Ardelle Ferrer
LAB / TRANSFER
Colorlab
Top image : Film still. Image courtesy of the artist.
SHORELINE MOVEMENTS
Movement 1
Black Beach / Forces / The Dead / Camp
— Beatriz Santiago Munoz
The Shiranui Sea (Shiranuikai)
— Tsuchimoto Noriaki
Lagos Island
— Karimah Ashadu
Movement 2
Becoming Alluvium
— Thao Nguyen Phan
malni – towards the ocean, towards the shore/a>
— Sky Hopinka
At Land
— Maya Deren
Movement 3
Dead Sea Drawings (Part 1)
— Edith Dekyndt
The Two Sights
— Joshua Bonnetta
blue mantle
— Rebecca Meyers
Movement 4
Nefandus
— Carlos Motta
Voices of Orchid Island
— Hu Tail-li
The Pearl Button (El Boton de nacar)
— Patrico Guzman
Movement 5
Y Berá – Bright Waters
— Jessica Sarah Rinland
Slow Action
— Ben Rivers
Flat Jungle (De platte jungle)
— Johan van der Kreuken
Movement 6
The Blackest Sea
— Peggy Ahwesh
A Moon Made of Iron (Una luna de hierro)
— Francisco Rodriguez
The worldly Cave
— Zhou Tao