Caterina Erica Shanta

En Ausencia (2023)
Caterina Erica Shanta
Selected by Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo, Italy

En Ausencia means “in absence". The film was designed and filmed during Caterina Erica Shanta’s research residency in Mexico City in June 2023. In Mexico, potable water is a private good, so its access is governed by market laws like any other commodity. So access to water becomes, in this context, even more a political discourse when it is not guaranteed in an equitable and sustainable manner. En Ausencia - in absence - is built on the narrative voices of a number of people who joined an open call published by Caterina while she was in Mexico City, in which she asked them to recount dreams in which water was the main and recurring element.

Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo:

Solidarity is understood as a critical discourse around a common good, but also as a sharing of thoughts that often passes below the threshold of attention: it is also a dreamlike discourse. Dreams also allow us to talk about a complex situation from a radically different perspective. The collectivization of the theme, through the open call and the plurality of voices, allowed me to open a dialogue that is condensed in the interview with Professor José Antonio Lino Mina, who proposes a radical housing solution based on the total sharing of water in Mexico City. With this idea, the attempt is to understand how a different approach can also change the cultural relationship with this element (always different depending on the geography).