topic three

¿Quién puede borrar las huellas?
Who can erase the traces?

2003 Performance

Historical Influences

Feminist Performance Art

Photos of other Performances

Chronology

Digital Bibliography

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Regina Jose Galindo's Index

Regina Jóse Galindo's 2003, performance of "¿Quién poder borrar las huellas?" ("Who can erase the traces?"), allowed her the opportunity to present her work which protests ex-president of he Congress Efrain Rios Montt. There are three features of significance considered in analyzing this performance. They are political rhetoric, Body as tool, and her use of human blood.

The first feature of significance in this performance is that it is a direct protest to former military dictator, General Rios Montt, who was in leadership during the beginning of the war (Goldman). In 2002, the corrupt Constitutional Court has recently allowed the former military dictator, General Rios Montt, to run for president despite the constitution barring of past presidents who gained power by military coup. In a walk from the Constitutional Court to the National Palace of Guatemala, Galindo’s traces are left connecting the two major buildings. This performances ghostly remnants were symbolic of the sufferers and victims of the conflict.

The second feature of significance is she uses her body as a tool; she uses her bare feet on pavement leaving behind a bloody trail of footprints. Goldman claims, Galindo uses her body to create powerful visual metaphors and symbols that are never just obscure.

The third feature of significance is the use of human blood, or sangre. Her bloody footprints were both haunting and intriguing. Goldman states, (2006) that understanding the symbolism: the ghostly footprints which were representative of the hundreds of thousands of civilians murdered, overwhelmingly by the Army, during the long, years of war and after; the persistence of memory in the face of official policies of enforced forgetting and impunity.

All pictures can be found in Regina José Galindo, 112-117.