Summary

Act One is an ethnography of violence reflecting on a history of conflict in Central Mexico. The video posits a decolonial approach to the visual representation of violence, transporting us beyond the realm of suffering into a space for quiet contemplation as the violent terrain of occupation enters the frame. Following the pictorial European Romantic landscape tradition with its depiction of the uncontrollable power of nature, this piece is an investigation on enforced disappearance in rural Mexico, reclaiming undermined histories of everyday violence and economic struggle.