Distance, 68 Kilometers of Absence. (work in progress)

I am working in an Installation/urban intervention that comments on the current state of violence in Mexico. 

'Distance, 68 kilometers of Absence'

Is the physical representation of the 40000 assassinations that have taken place in Mexico since the 'war against organized crime' started 4 years ago.  From the tragedy of a number that has become an statistic, with no name, age nor gender, 68 kilometers comes from multiplying 40000 times the average height of a Mexican man, 1.70 meters. The idea of measuring this absence with distance, comes from the realization that violence in Mexico has drawn a line between my desire to come back, and that keeps growing greater. A line of distance between the place where I grew up and the one I no longer recognize. It aims to make tangible a number that is impossible to understand just by thinking about it. 

The first stage, measuring 68 metres, only 1% of the total, will be displayed as my participation in the international protest that calls for the immediate cease of violence from both, government and drug cartels. 


Demonstrations of support have already started in Mexico and will culminate on the 8th of May internationally.


Please join the demonstration in LONDON.  We will congregate at 11 am on Sunday 8th of May in front of the Mexican Embassy. 


Mexican Embassy,
16 St George Street,
Mayfair,
London W1S 1FD


This demand for peace and justice with no political inclination was triggered by the mexican poet Javier Sicilia, after the recent assassination of his son, and is the follow up of the first protest held the past 6th of April  which summoned 30 demonstration of support from the Mexican Civil Society around the country and 13 in different places around the world. 


Click HERE, If you want to have a look at 'the way to peace' ('Ruta por la Paz'), which shows the path that is being walked by the manifestation already taking place since the 5th of May in direction to Mexico City from Cuernavaca, Mexico. 
  
If you want to join the protest from another place in the planet, visit THIS PAGE and find your city. 


Or if can't attend but would like to join in solidarity, there is a proposal for 'Poetic Action'  that is very easy and can be done from your own house or office, all you need is an empty envelope and a stamp. HERE the easy instructions.


For the event information on facebook click HERE, and its version in SPANISH.  


The past 2 post in this blog contain additional information and links if you want to know more about what is happening in Mexico. 

DISTANCE

I made a placard and cycled to the embassy, and there, looking at our tiny tiny group of people thought: one assassination + one assassination, makes two, and like that slowly and rapidly the number came up to 40 000. Maybe we, slowly and rapidly become enough, all of us.

It is very bizarre. I did not leave the country because of the political state it was, or the level of violence on the streets, but it is certainly now one of the main reasons that stop me from coming back. 

It is really sad to realized that your family slowly stops asking you to come back, and suddenly they even suggest not to do it. Like if they ran out of good reasons other than them missing you. 

It is very sad to have a shit life overseas and still think its potentially better than back home. I don't think I have given too much thought of how the prospect of coming back actually scares me. 

It is not only because the majority of my adult life I have lived it away, and I have less than a hand full of friends left there, or because I fear my career would have no future, what actually scares the hell out of me is that slowly slowly, the whole situation there (the corruption, the assassinations, the poverty, the many injustices), will become such and everyday thing that it will be just normalized, and become immune to it probably after a few frustrated and pitiful intents to change it. 

So I suddenly got really angry and thought, what the hell is going on?! Why am I so fearful of my country? why do I have so little hope and faith for it? why do I find it so sadly broken and decaying that I have stop trying to understand it and look away. 

I dont know how much or little I can do from here, to start regaining some of that lost hope. Specially since I had actively given up on reading the news and stay informed.

While I was outside the embassy, I started to think of the distance, between London and Mexico, between the country I used to know and the one that has become. 

Other distances have become shorter, like whit my family for example. 

I though of the consequences of those distances. 

Last week, I saw my dog being put down after an illness related to old age, on skype. It reminded me of the many things I am missing out, the ageing of my parents for example. And how somehow, that dog was to me 5 years old, like when I left almost 9 years ago, his life length has shortened.

Like the lives of those assassinated. Shortened. 

I thought 40 000, is only a number.   

I tried to imagine what it actually meant 40 000 shortened lives. Lives that have become this number, an statistic. Numbers can also mean distance. 

And thought of how long in terms of distance can a shortened life measure. 

MEXICO IN STATE OF EMERGENCY

In Mexico, there has been nearly 40 000 assassinations in the past 4 years by the so called 'war against crime'. This anonymous civilians, that have become numbers and statistics, they represent each citizen of this country, reduce to  an unprotected life, the life of an animal, of a being that can be violated, kidnapped, molested and assassinated with impunity. 

TODAY there will be 30 demonstrations around the country and 13 in different places around the world to call for the immediate end of violence from both, government and drug cartels. Please join the demonstration, in LONDON, it will be at 5pm in front of the Mexican Embassy.

Mexican Embassy,
16 St George Street,
Mayfair,
London W1S 1FD

“One day they came for the blacks, and I said nothing. Another day they came for the Jews, and I said nothing. One day they came for me (or for a son of mine) and I had nothing to say.” 

                                                                          Bertholt Brecht, when the horror of Nazism

This in an international call from the mexican poet Javier Sicilia, after the recent assassination of his son, if you want to read his letter click HERE. 

“Por nuestros hijos, por los que viven, por los que pueden ser víctimas mañana, por las mujeres de Juárez asesinadas, por tantos crímenes, por tantos inocentes caídos, vamos a las calles a exigirle a estos hijos de la chingada del crimen organizado que le paren, y a estos cabrones del gobierno, que respondan.”

"For our children, for the ones still alive, for the ones that could be victims tomorrow, for the women assassinated in Juarez, for the many crimes, for the many fallen innocents, lets go to the streets and demand this sons of bitches in the organized crime to stop, and the fuckers in the in the government to  respond".  

If you want information on the details of Demonstrations around the world click HERE.