Gabriel Acevedo ~ What now?

Gabriel Acevedo's "What now?" was presented before live audience at Centrale Fies, Dro, Italy on August 3, 2024 as one of 38 AEROPONIC ACTS of CHAMELEON ORBIT curated by Elisa Giuliani & Giulia Crispiani.

Here you will find the documentation of Gabriel Acevedo's presentation as filmed by Baha Görkem Yalım. The written report is by  Bethany Crawford and it includes a summary of the comments by esteemed guest respondents.

What now?

Gabriel Acevedo's question: What now?

Gabriel's introduction: In order to process and resolve, in present times, what Ernesto de Martino called the “crisis of presence” in the 1950s (the alienation from history produced by trauma), it’s necessary to resort to both cultural and political analysis. In other words, the cultural interpretation of underlying narratives of oppression and violence needs to be complemented by analysis of representative democracy’s dynamics. The risk of leaning too much on one approach only, be it cultural or political, is that we obliterate the other, thus falling into an interpretative enclosure, a narcissistic trap. One of the most notorious expressions of this is the territorialization of words, like “radical”, as if the emphasis on identity and the echo chambers of “like-minded people” was spreading into language itself. The consequence is that critique may end up being an alienating agent, producing a new type of presence crisis, detached from abstraction or affect—or both.

Bethany's report: The screen opens with an image of a parliament. The presentation is reminiscent of a TED Talk as the performer begins to read aloud from his thesis, revealing a personal and harrowing account of sexual abuse by the principal of their school. Slides move on the screen, mapping the political climate of Peru in 2017. The performer details how his case of child molestation intersected with larger political forces, including the ultraconservative Christian groups and their simultaneous investigations. They explain how this convergence of events, alongside Keiko Fujimori’s political rise, used their case to distract from systemic issues and bolster Fujimori's election efforts. Further revelations touch on sexual abuse in Indigenous girls’ schools, painting a complex picture of systemic failures.

The narrative shifts to legislative changes in Peru, particularly the 2018 law abolishing the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse cases. While the performer acknowledges this law’s potential to offer closure, he reflects on how something deeper remains unresolved. Their own testimony, presented in October 2018, brought a profound sense of healing through validation by authorities—a rare and transformative experience.

Drawing comparisons to Australian policy, the performer highlights the role of restorative justice and its integration into children's and victims' rights. They critique how these fields often operate in silos, limiting their capacity to fully address communal trauma and alienation. Feminist activism from the 1970s and 1980s is discussed, connecting these movements to the ongoing struggle for justice and human rights, particularly in education and childhood advocacy. The presentation becomes a critique of cultural and political intersections, invoking scholars like Clifford Geertz and Jodi Dean to frame these issues within a broader theoretical context.

The performance takes a personal turn as the performer shares an experience with a shaman in the Peruvian rainforest, detailing an ayahuasca ceremony. During the ceremony, they describe a transformation—becoming a tiger, feeling the cold rainforest reclaim their body, and experiencing a sense of agency and strength through this tangible, visceral embodiment. The performer concludes reflecting that everyone in Europe has the agency to collectivise within the luxury of democracy. 

Inti Guerrero: Inti noted that Gabriel’s presentation followed a form of lecture performance that drew on the aesthetic of the TED Talk and was well-orchestrated, rehearsed, and engaging in its monologue-driven format. He observed that many presenters read from phones and suggested that, in future iterations, the use of teleprompters or alternative methods might allow for more direct engagement with the audience, especially for works dealing with topics such as petitions and political systems.

He expressed interest in seeing a deeper extension of some of the themes mentioned in the presentation, particularly around restorative justice. Inti shared reflections on Australia’s colonial history, specifically the Stolen Generations, where First Nations children were removed from their families and placed in boarding schools under policies of assimilation, paralleling similar histories in Canada. He noted how this has come to be recognized as a national trauma.

Inti also referenced histories from Ireland, including the sexual abuse of children within institutional settings such as boarding schools and the Magdalene Laundries, where young mothers were institutionalized and shamed. These examples, he said, pointed to a broader, interconnected context in which restorative justice, restoration, and reparations must be understood.

He concluded by connecting these reflections to wider global discourses on historical debt, particularly in relation to the legacy of slavery and systemic racism in the United States and Brazil, suggesting that Gabriel’s work gestures toward these broader frameworks of justice and repair.

AEROPONIC ACTS 2024 ~ Chameleon Orbit

About Gabriel Acevedo