Gabriela Golder speaks about her series of works at Sharjah Biennial 15 ’Arrancar Los Ojos’ (2023): ‘El secreto de la tierra/The secret of the earth’ (2023) and ‘Ojos rotos/ Broken Eyes’ (2023).

Golder examines the intersection between labour and memory from a wide variety of sources— political, mythical and medical—to highlight the aftereffect of violent state actions. ‘Arrancar Los Ojos’, which means ‘tear out the eyes’ in Spanish, is a mixed media project emanating from the mass protests across Chile in 2019 during which more than 400 victims of police brutality sustained eye injuries. Through performance, video and spatial intervention, it reflects on punitive state violence, illuminating the tendency of riot police across contexts—from South America to Hong Kong, Kashmir to Palestine—to intentionally aim for protestors’ heads.

Gabriela Golder’s ‘Ojos rotos/ Broken Eyes’ received an honourable mention during the Sharjah Biennial 15 Prize ceremony at the opening night gala dinner on 7 February 2023.

From ‘Arrancar Los Ojos’ (2023): ‘El secreto de la tierra/The secret of the earth’ (2023) is produced by Sharjah Art Foundation, ‘Ojos rotos/ Broken Eyes’ (2023) is produced by Han Nefkens Foundation, Barcelona.