Camila Ramirez

Salvador Allende Solidarity Museum, Chile

Wealth is badly distributed in the world. And this is even more so in countries which have carried out a fanatically capitalist economic policy, as is the case of Chile. Let us imagine that we have a cooking pot filled with food and four mouths to feed. If we provide the cooking pot with four handles, will this entail an equal distribution of the food? Artist Camila Ramírez performs that mutation in order to obtain an answer: no. It is always the same hand that takes the loot. In another video we see a cup with six handles, and in a third video, a frying pan with four handles. In every case, only one hand takes what is contained in the vessels. The title of the work clears up any doubts: “Win or Die”. A didactic explanation on the erroneous distribution of collective goods, or on the irregular disposal of common and vital goods, such as food and water. Ramírez’s video plays with the concept of community and solidarity via simple and theatrical elements such as the symbolic use of red. A proposal that functions as an epilogue or coda for Soviet and American twentieth-century propaganda, or as a twist in Man Ray’s (Cadeau, 1921) mutations, with the difference that in Camila’s work the intention is not surrealist or dadaist but clearly social. “Win or Die” alludes to the end of utopia as a tangible hope in the current system, to the impossibility on the part of a well-meaning common forum to find a naive solution. It generates reflection that is extrinsic to her everyday reality, but also intrinsic, since not only does she have a committed political stance but she also forms part of an artistic collective. Her work mirrors the internal and external struggles that every person calls – or should call – into question.