Parallels

This video installation explores the city of El Alto, Bolivia, documenting daily life five years after Evo Morales was elected President under the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) party, ushering in a period of significant social change in Bolivia. The Morales administration brought unprecedented economic growth, fostered a new sense of individual pride, and promoted respect for all of Bolivia’s diverse ethnic groups, effectively ending the previous push for cultural homogeneity. However, this era of transformation also saw setbacks, including a regression in women’s rights and a rise in LGBT hate crimes and femicides. Parallels captures an indigenous women’s wrestling show held in a Cholet, focusing on the audience and the building’s interiors rather than the performance itself. The work nods to Guy Debord’s Situationist film In Girum Imus Nocte et Consumimur Igni (1978), of which Debord wrote: “the theme of the film is not the spectacle, but real life.”