Illusion of Matter

Born in 1978, Naufus fled Guatemala aged six, shortly after his 19-year old activist uncle was assassinated. The day that he was informed of his death, he woke up in tears not knowing what happened, while already knowing what was going on. Perhaps young children don’t have the language to process these horrors, and their memories remain as imprinted abstract sensations only to be fully comprehended later, when put into a wider context. Commissioned by Tate Modern, Illusion of Matter is informed by his childhood memories of the Guatemalan Civil War, capturing these imprecise yet deeply affecting memories, almost as re-enactments of the simultaneously candy-coloured and terrifying sensations experienced by his childhood self, retaining an underlying sense of playfulness.The non-narrative events that unfold are both absurd and funny, ultimately leaving us with the nightmarish image of a glowing skeleton-like figure advancing towards the camera at the end of the performance.