Soil (Digital video, 4' 06" , 2010) - Single Channel or installation loop. From the Series Exercises in Faith

Tierra/soil is a piece that shows the profile of my face lying horizontally, with my mouth open, on a white background. Soil starts pouring down from the upper side of the frame and filling my mouth gradually.

Closeness to the earth implies being close to life and death, to the visceral. The landscape is source of ideas of identity, dreams of belonging, but also nightmares when confronted with the side of it that partakes in the real; when one gets too close, blurring the boundaries that keep one safe.

Land has been a recurrent source of conflict and death, An image evoked with this video is that of mass graves, despite of the clean setting and white background. In the video, I take the soil trying to engage in minimal movement or expression. The openness of the mouth, however, gives a sense of willingness to receive the dirt. It is a situation that is not resolved, as the soil keeps falling and accumulating. The soil comes from above, as a kind of fate.