By Clara Maria Apostolatos for The Brooklyn Rail
Three years ago at El Museo del Barrio, Afro-Cuban performance artist Carlos Martiel performed Monumento I (2021), part of his acclaimed “Monumento” series where, following actions varying by context, he stoically embodies a temporary monument to histories of oppression. In this inaugural piece, he stood atop a white pedestal, covered to his shoulders in blood sourced from bodies belonging to minority or marginalized groups in the United States, his nude body exposed in the middle of the empty gallery space. The artwork resonated with the events of the summer of 2020, marked by the eruption of Black Lives Matter protests following the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others. Now, photographic and video documentation of Monumento I alongside its subsequent iterations returns to El Museo as part of Martiel’s first solo show in New York, Cuerpo. Through his performances, Martiel orchestrates situations of physical and psychological duress, allowing him to embody and make visible the oppression that has shaped the lived experiences of migrant, Latinx, and Black communities, among others. Cuerpo offers a mid-career survey of two decades of his key performances, featuring photographs, videos, and preparatory drawings.
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