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Flowers of Antimony: Film on Bay Area Anarchism!

Posted on November 21st, 2008 in Happenings

The Puerto Rico–based artist Beatriz Santiago Muñoz will present the world premiere of her new film Flowers of Antimony on Tuesday, November 25, at 7 p.m. at California College of the Arts in San Francisco. There will be a reception from 6–7 p.m. Both the reception and the screening are free and open to the public.

This is Santiago’s first-ever solo project on the West Coast. Her film explores the complex issue of anarchism and how it has evolved from its original incarnation—a group-centered, utopian practice—to encompass a variety of strategies, from tree-dwelling protests to veganism to open-source computing, enacted by individuals with diverse motivations who come together for specific activities and moments. Santiago mirrors this within her film, as she investigates alternative forms of protest and different possibilities for the creation of social change.

Santiago is the fall 2008 Capp Street Project artist in residence at the CCA Wattis Institute; her project is organized by Wattis Institute Deputy Director Claire Fitzsimmons. Santiago produced the film over the course of her residency, working with a number of Bay Area anarchist and radical-leftist individuals and groups, including the Long Haul (based in South Berkeley) and Free Radio Berkeley ( a now-silenced alternative radio station). As is typical of her practice, she did not work with professional actors. The participants act out unscripted, improvised narratives that exist in the collective memory or as official histories.

Santiago’s films and videos have the appearance of straightforward documentaries. The seams of their narrative construction, however, whether manifest as artifice, play, discomfort, or humor, are consciously evident. Santiago’s collaborators may be haphazard associations—people who happen to cross her path—or people with whom she has deeper relationships, formed over the course of months. Her subjects become removed from the accepted, codified structure of their lives and the society in which they live in order to effect social and political change.

About the Artist
Beatriz Santiago Muñoz was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1972, where she continues to live and work. In 1997, she received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She will be a guest curator of the 2da Trienal Poli/Gráfica de San Juan: América Latina y el Caribe (April 18-June 28, 2009). Her work has been featured in the group exhibitions Infinite Island: Contemporary Caribbean Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York (2007); Slash Fiction, Gasworks, London (2007); and 24/7 Wilno-Nueva York Contemporary Art Center, Vilnius, Lithuania (2003 ).

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