Reflecting on Covid-19: Seven Sundays
The photos of Marisa Arce Zencich were chosen for the exhibit “Documenting the Impact of Covid-19 through Photography: Collective Isolation in Latin America,” curated in collaboration with ReVista and the Art, Culture, and Film program at Harvard’s David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies (DRCLAS.)
The exhibition, based on an Open Call for Photography launched in July 2020, aims to create a critical visual record of our unprecedented times so they can be remembered by future generations.
We always have lived with the constant tic tac of a global rhythm, like if we are in a military training where there is no place for rest and need to be more efficient and productive each day.
Everybody should have high performance in all aspects of life, more degrees, courses taken, medals won, friendships, more likes on social media, fit bodies, the best photos of trips, bars and meals for Instagram, a home of their own, the dog, the car and a thousand beautiful children for Facebook, which became a constant target.
But today, the world is stopped and here we are, trying to understand what is happening. Desperate to go out and consume, a capitalist way of covering emotions as simple as being at peace at home, that place that cost us so much to obtain. We are not culturally prepared for a quiet lifestyle note even in a short or long term, and less for the dissociated pleasure of consumption. The only thing that we can only try to understand the famous “here and now”. And now? Where is the manual that explains how to handle the silence, the dispatch of the pleasures that frenetic daily negotiations give us?
Here we are all the beings of this world in the same situation, trying to manage loneliness, anxiety, seven days a week that seem like all Sundays without barbecue with family or friends, without parties, without going to the bar and with that which we now call social distancing. Yes, seven Sundays in a row.
Now we are trying to learn to control and discipline ourselves, understanding the here and now imposed by the current villain, the Coronavirus.
Checkmate to the humans of this world.
Reflejando sobre Covid-19: Siete Domingos
Por Marisa Arce Zencich
Marisa Arce Zencich fue seleccionada para la exposición, “Documentando el impacto de Covid-19 a través de la fotografía: Aislamiento colectivo en Latinoamérica”, auspiciado por ReVista y el Art, Culture, and Film program del David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies (DRCLAS) de Harvard.
La exposición, resultado de el concurso de fotografía anunciado en Julio 2020, busca crear un registro visual de estos tiempos sin precedentes y contribuir a nuestra futura memoria histórica. 2020 será recordado como una año decisivo en el que una pandemia dejó al descubierto las desigualdades y fisuras dentro de nuestra sociedad y la relevancia de vivir y participar de la vida en comunidad incluso mientras se vive la pandemia de forma aislada. La muestra procura promover una perspectiva regional del aislamiento colectivo impuesto por el Covid-19 desde América Latina y el Caribe.
Siempre hemos vivido con el constante tic tac global como si estuviésemos en algún tipo de entrenamiento militar dónde no hay lugar para el descanso, y necesitamos ser cada vez más productivos y eficientes día a día.
Todos debemos tener un alto rendimiento en todos los aspectos de la vida, más títulos, cursos realizados, medallas ganadas, amistades, likes, cuerpos fit, las mejores fotos de viajes, bares y comidas para Instagram, una casa propia, el perro, el auto y mil hijos bellos para Facebook, lo que se ha convertido en un objetivo constante.
Pero hoy el mundo se puso en pausa y aquí estamos, tratando de entender que pasa. Desesperados por salir a consumir, un modo capitalista de tapar emociones tan simples como estar en paz en casa, la que tanto nos costó tener. No estamos preparados culturalmente para pensar el estancamiento como condición de corto ni de largo plazo, y menos para disociar el placer del consumo. Finalmente, solo nos queda tratar de entender el famoso “aquí y ahora”. Y ¿ahora? ¿A dónde está el manual que nos explica cómo manejar el silencio, el despago de los placeres que nos dan frenéticas negociaciones cotidianas?
Aquí estamos todos los seres de este mundo al unísono tratando de manejar la soledad, la ansiedad, los siete días de la semana que parecen todos domingos sin asados en familia o con amigos. Sin fiestas, sin ir a bares, y con lo que ahora llamamos distancia social. Si, siete domingos seguidos.
Aquí estamos, aprendiendo a controlarnos y disciplinarnos, aprendiendo el aquí y ahora impuesto por actual villano, el coronavirus.
Jaque mate al mundo de los humanos.
Marisa Arce Zencich is an Argentine photographer.
Marisa Arce Zencich es una fotográfa argentina.
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