Son[i]a #391 Carlos Motta

Carlos Motta (b. Bogotá, 1978) sees his research as a potential space of enunciation from which to act as a counterweight to the prevailing narratives—a positive gesture of recognition of social groups, identities and communities whose voices have been suppressed by the dominant colonial power. His radical multidisciplinary practice and his use of a range of media—from video to installation, sculpture, performance and drawing on paper—make him hard to pin down. He also focuses on interaction with others, in ensemble works involving orality, documentary, curating, and even organizing public programs and symposia. Avoiding a neutral stand, these divergent spaces unfold through the poetics of narrative and through clearly defined ideological positions, with the intention of developing new alternative archives that recognise the value of situated and embodied knowledge.   

In this podcast, we talk to Carlos Motta about art, politics, the market, and working conditions. Given his obstinate resistance to defining himself within a specific style and/or medium, we hear how he entered (and moved away from) the legacy of conceptual art. And in line with what he calls his “sociological desire to understand”, we take a new look at the strategies of the Latin American Third Cinema movement and European cinema verité through his practice, relational devices, and extended ways of thinking and performing new archives.