Allora & Calzadilla

We worked in collaboration with various activist groups involved with the land-reclamation actions in the disputed U.S. Navy bomb-testing range (in Vieques, Puerto Rico). Initially we designed custom-made shoe soles for the protestors to use during civil-disobedience actions. The images on the bottom of the shoes were chosen by each individual user and depicted territories (geographical, bodily, linguistic, and so on) that functioned as counter-representations of the site. The marks made onto the terrain--indexes of bodily presence and imagery of alternative aspirations--resulted in a collective portrait of this diverse constellation of individuals who mutually gathered for this common purpose. - Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla

An artistic team based in Puerto Rico, Allora & Calzadilla have worked together since 1995 in photography, performance, video, sound, and sculpture. Their efforts transform simple materials into profound metaphors of political encounter. The Land Mark series was created with activists in Vieques, Puerto Rico, an island used for bombing practice by the U.S. military. Protesters worked with the artists to design shoes whose soles register images and words of frustration, destruction, and hope. The shoes were then worn during the protest at the site and their marks photographed, capturing a permanent record of an ephemeral community action.

In Land Mark (footprints), Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla enlist the feet of protestors at Vieques, the former U.S. Navy weapons test site that was for many years a bitter reminder of Puerto Rico’s submission to the power to the north. To the protestors’ shoes the artists added custom-designed soles with subversive slogans and images carved in relief. The beach on which they illegally demonstrated thus became imprinted with their respective visions for the land reclamation campaign, just as it has been imprinted by U.S. bombs.

En Terreno marcado (huellas), Jennifer Allora y Guillermo Calzadilla enlistaron los pies de protestantes en Vieques, el lugar donde la Marina de los E.U. probaban sus armas. Por muchos años Vieques era un amargo recuerdo de la sumisión de Puerto Rico al poder del norte. A las huellas de los zapatos de los protestantes, los artistas añadieron suelas de zapatos mandadas a hacer con inscripciones subversivas e imágenes al relieve. La playa donde se llevaron a cabo las demostraciones ilegales fue impresa con las respectivas visiones de una campaña para reclamar la tierra, así como había sido impresa por bombas.

Courtesy of the artists and Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris