ACTION VERSUS JUSTIFICATION: Iwuana, Kunsthal KAdE, Amersfoort, Netherlands
Action Versus Justifications / Iwana
2010
Olfactory–acoustic film scenario
This banquet for iguanas was shot on the Caribbean island of Curaçao.
Maciá describes the iguana (in the indigenous language, iwana) as
'the last dinosaur of the Caribbean.'
A forty-eight hour feast for twenty-two diners was set on a table overlooking the natural bay
where the colonising Spaniards landed in 1499,
enslaving and exterminating the local Arawak people.
The iguanas are the only surviving witnesses of this genocide.
The resultant 16mm black-and-white film (duration 13 minutes, transferred to DVD)
is accompanied by the smell of apples,
a scent encouraging relaxation and cognitive intelligence,
and a soundtrack of a fierce rainstorm moving across four sound-channels.
Presented at:
Kunsthal KAdE, Amersfoort, Netherlands (2012)
Biennal de Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain (2010)
Collaborator:
Smell component created with senior perfumer Ricardo Moya
(IFF)
thanks to: Curator, Nancy Hoffmann
and Instituto Buena Bista
Center for Contemporary Art, Curaçao.
