Camouflage and Deviations of Memory: Yeguas del Apocalipsis at the Havana Biennial

Abstract

In May, 1997, Las Yeguas del Apocalipsis (The Mares of the Apocalypse), a duo formed by Francisco Casas and Pedro Lemebel in Santiago in 1987, performed their last action at the VI Havana Biennial in Cuba (Fig. 9.1).2 Titled Memory Exercise, the action consisted of a lecture in which they overviewed their collective work of almost a decade together. Due to the small amount of documentation of their work, its reconstruction relied mostly on orality to recapitulate their past, and engaged with storytelling as a deviation and eroticization device for memory making. In addition to this official presentation, Las Yeguas created a second, non-official action a few days later. Bypassing the artistic circuit circumscribed by the Biennial, this action was a blind and undocumented event that has remained in the shadows. On different levels, both actions lack documentary traces. And yet, they significantly show the role of orality in their work as a memory record not only permeable to rumor, but also, as a more that recreates itself as it moves through word of mouth. At the same time, they show that orality constitutes the only access point we have to events, which, due to the lack of verifiable documentary evidence, have remained in the shadows of memory...