Figure 2. Carlos Garaicoa (Cuban, b. 1967), Noticias recientes (Brasil)/
Recent News (Brazil), detail, 2008
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The massive construction of the building, and its rundown condition, speak of agglomeration and the failures of
modernity. This, at least, is how the installation appears at
first glance. Upon closer inspection, however, we can see a
series of bullet holes (figure 2). The diptych, laminated in
Plexiglas and shot with a 9mm pistol, is about a wound.
Noticias recientes (Brasil)/Recent News (Brazil) was made
while Garaicoa was an artist in residence in Rio de Janeiro
and is a response to his sense of vulnerability, to the fear of
being killed by a stray bullet. The work is about the fragility of modern life, particularly in large cities characterized
by uneven development. What matters most, however, is
that Garaicoa’s Noticias recientes invites a metaphorical
interpretation. The “recent news” to which the title refers
might also point to the fact that photographic representation itself seems to be broken, wounded. In contrast to the
Angolan images, the wounds in Noticias recientes are not
the representation of bullet marks in a building. Rather,
the photograph itself has been hurt. Noticias recientes can
thus be interpreted as a statement about photography in
its current state. Vulnerability is now seen at the level of
the representation, of what photography does, and how it
speaks. In light of technological and philosophical changes,
photography has become more vulnerable as a medium.
Photography has stopped being what it was supposed to be.
Photography as we know it is now dead.
What Garaicoa’s Noticias recientes makes visible at any
rate is that photography is now at some level mourning itself as a system of representation. Photography has changed
identities. Less inclined to suggest a story or showcase an
object in an aesthetic light, a photograph is now a fragment
whose meaning exists only in a string of other objects,