FONS ÀUDIO #62
Carlos Motta
In FONS ÀUDIO #62, multidisciplinary artist Carlos Motta talks about two of his works in the MACBA Collection, which are separated by more than a decade but united by their common interest in exploring the relationship between the body, pain, history, and the future: Nefandus (2013) and Gravedad (Gravity, 2024). Nefandus is a fictional video essay filmed in the Colombian Caribbean, which explores colonial violence against dissident bodies and sexualities through a river journey and a doubling of the narrative voice. The second work, Gravedad, was created in collaboration with eight performers in São Paulo, Brazil. It is based on an action that is simple but carries great weight in a literal and metaphorical sense: holding another person’s body. Made in response to the avalanche of harrowing and shocking images that came after 7 October in Gaza, the work uses physical movement to activate questions about the sustenance of life and the desensitisation to the pain of others in a world wounded by systematic violence constantly covered by the media.
In this conversation, we talk to Carlos Motta about the genealogy of Nefandus, about the concept of sodomy as a tool of colonial control, and about the links between sexuality, morality and power. Carlos also talks us through the collaborative and physical processes of Gravedad, his relationship with endurance performance, and how pain, gesture and care can become symbolic languages of resistance. During our talk, we also look back at works such as Naufragios (Shipwreck), The Defeated (2013), and Towards a Homoerotic Historiography (2014), and we discuss archival strategies, museographic devices, and the importance of rethinking history from the margins.
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