TEXT
Vinilo
2009
In 2009, the leader of a gang of extortionists, known as "The Smiley", from Mara (gang) 18 was captured. This gang had been killing public transport bus drivers for months, who were reluctant to pay the extortion demanded. Inspired by the case, a group of artists decided to make an exhibition about the capture of this criminal. However, most of the participating artists came from privileged economic backgrounds, so they were not exactly the most qualified to express themselves on such a subject. In the end, what was exhibited were pieces that contained a profound insensitivity; in my opinion, worthy of being embarrassed over. Before I knew what it was about, I had accepted to be part of the exhibition; however, once the theme was already clear, I did not feel like participating. Because of this, I began to think of a piece with which I could be present without having to literally work on the theme, and from there came the idea of a text on vinyl that read: "Due to several death threats received against him, Mario Santizo withdrew from this exhibition". With that I was able to participate without really participating. On the opening day of the exhibition I had decided not to attend... hours before it opened, I received a call from one of the artists who was organizing the exhibition asking me to please not come in order to create the doubt of whether the text was telling the truth or not, thus giving me the perfect excuse to stay at home. The audience wondered if I had really received threats or not, since given the theme of the exhibition this was actually a real possibility.
