VICTIMS' DIGNITY

An interview with Carlos Motta
By Marko Stamenković, 23 January 2008

Could you please describe the video that was released at the end of 2007 and distributed via media all over the world, which is the main reason for this conversation?

The video shows a woman sitting on a wooden bench facing – although never looking at – the camera in a 3/4 angle. She has very long hair, is extremely thin, and her hands are held together softly yet tied by a chain. She is wearing beige linen clothing and tall rain boots. To her back is a lush, green jungle, overwhelmingly alive, wet, green, spilling sounds of insects, animals and wind. The cameraperson holds the camera steadily, though it slightly shakes. He consistently zooms in and out to show her eyes. Although there are no words, he seems to be forcing the woman to stare at us, onlookers of an intimate scene of muted pain and transgression that lasts 55 seconds. He fails as she silently denies her gaze.

What is so strange about it? Who is the woman? Could you put it into a context that explains it better?

The woman is Ingrid Betancourt, a former presidential candidate from Colombia held captive by the FARC guerrillas. The video is part of recent proofs of the survival of several kidnapped persons seized from the abductors by Colombian authorities during a recent failed humanitarian exchange plan.

What was actually the most striking point for you in that gesture of “recognition”?

This video has had a profound impact on me. I will try to briefly explain why. Ms. Betancourt currently stands as an emblematic figure of kidnapping in Colombia. She has been kidnapped for more than five years and, given her political background and double nationality (half French), her case has been consistently reported. Although the specifics of her case and kidnapping in Colombia deserve ample reflection, I want to concentrate here on what this recent video represents to me, which is an image of “the victimIn different sciences the term victim has different meanings. The term is most often use in criminology, religion, psychotherapy and New Age context ...’s dignity”.

What do you mean by “the victimIn different sciences the term victim has different meanings. The term is most often use in criminology, religion, psychotherapy and New Age context ...’s dignity”? Is it a kind of public invigilation of private emotion, or…?

The purpose of such a proof of survival is to prove that the victimIn different sciences the term victim has different meanings. The term is most often use in criminology, religion, psychotherapy and New Age context ... is alive and thus encourage continuing the negotiations. It is made to be public, to be distributed by the media and commented upon. It is an image of pain, an inherently political game meant to show off power. It instrumentalises the victimIn different sciences the term victim has different meanings. The term is most often use in criminology, religion, psychotherapy and New Age context ...’s lack of freedom doubly since it exposes his/her most vulnerable state without shame or respect. These proofs however are a way of communication – the only one – between the victimsIn different sciences the term victim has different meanings. The term is most often use in criminology, religion, psychotherapy and New Age context ... and their families and also they might be ways of temporal escape.

Could you be more precise in terms of reflecting on the actual status of such a victimIn different sciences the term victim has different meanings. The term is most often use in criminology, religion, psychotherapy and New Age context ...? How do you see it (between life and death, she says “we have been living like the dead”)…. Who is the victimIn different sciences the term victim has different meanings. The term is most often use in criminology, religion, psychotherapy and New Age context ... here?

Ms. Betancourt’s video is devastating in all aspects I can think of. It primarily confronts us with her suffering, the impact of time on her seemingly ill body, the inhumane conditions in which her days go by. At the same time it showed me the jungle in its rawness, that impenetrable space of the Colombian south, which I don’t dare to enter, not even in my dreams. That super-natural landscape of lawless piranhas and pink dolphins; home to the disappeared, the dead, the victimsIn different sciences the term victim has different meanings. The term is most often use in criminology, religion, psychotherapy and New Age context ... of the 50-year-old civil war.

That is an interesting point, as you try to reflect through your artwork about political conditions in Latin America from an aesthetic perspective?

Something that struck me about this video is it made me think of representation, of the indexical and symbolic nature of images, of composition and framing. Along these lines I can’t escape to view this document from an aesthetic perspective, perhaps as a work of art. I recognize in the video a bit of Caravaggio’s “Saint Thomas Putting his Finger on Christ's Wound”, or Robert Capa’s “Death of a Loyalist Soldier”. These are iconic and aesthetic representations of pain. The cameraman carefully insisted on framing with “correct” camera angles and consistently presented Ms. Betancourt dead-center on the frame. The cameraman victimized her again. As if her kidnapping wasn't enough, he attacked her with his gaze, to show us her griefGrief without complications is a normal response to loss. In the first phase it is usually manifested as a state of shock, with expression of numbness or bewilderment ...… But Ms. Betancourt remained still. Although she sees us looking at her, although she sees the world reproducing her image in posters and banners, although she embodies her experiential and our empathetic pain, she chose to remain still, silent, to deny us her gaze. By doing so she reclaimed her dignity, she demanded respect, she freed herself from the chains, she claimed her autonomy. She pronounced her freedom.