La Ruta
Film | Multi-channel Installation work projected on abaca & piña fiber curtains
excerpts : https://vimeo.com/386339748 / https://vimeo.com/271548084 [ for full screener, email natalia.lassalle.m@gmail.com ]
The Panoramic Route is a connection of multiple highways along its 269 kilometers, stretching from coast to coast through the mountainous center of Puerto Rico. It was devised by Luis Muñoz Marín, the archipelago’s first democratically elected governor in 1948, a year before the end of his 16-year tenure. Driven by the creation of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in 1952, Muñoz Marín traced a goal of lifting the country out of poverty and bringing it towards modernity through the development of infrastructure and social programs. During these years there was a decline in agricultural production and rural life on the island. This decline was fostered by a public policy interested in mobilizing rural populations to urban centers, in order to employ industrial labor for foreign companies.
The official narrative about the Panoramic Route presented “a new vision of tourism”, which sought to implement new visiting points, rest areas and recreational facilities for tourists and locals. Walking through the pathway, it is possible to understand the post-industrial reality of the country. From this historical framework, Christopher Gregory, Natalia Lassalle-Morillo and Erika P. Rodríguez have taken on the task of investigating the concept of progress along the route. La Ruta del Progreso began as an investigation that eventually led to a car ride through the peaks of the Cordillera Central.
La Ruta, the three-channel video directed by Natalia Lassalle-Morillo, documents the now abandoned recreational infrastructure , uncontrolled natural landscapes and off-road sites of Puerto Rico ’s Panoramic Route. Featuring long shots of these sites intertwined with interviews gathered throughout the journey of the route, La Ruta addresses how some of the inhabitants of the towns retell the lost history of their surroundings, and therefore redefine their communities’ potential history. The aim is to create an immersive and meditative environment for the viewer, allowing for further reflection on the relationship these sites have to the current and future understanding of progress in a country that lives in constant state of reimagining and therefore, redefining ,a sense of collective and individual identity.
The three video channels are projected into curtains crafted out of abaca (banana) & piña fiber, alluding to the use of earth and plant fibers in traditional artisanal (craft) practices from the island and the Caribbean. The video, projected unto these curtains, traverses through the fabric, creating a phantasmagoric effect; these landscapes become intangible, ungraspable.
This installation also includes a hammock, which hangs in the middle of the space and which provides the viewer an active, embodied and immersive experience of the films.
This installation is part of the collaborative project “La Ruta”, created in collaboration with Christopher Gregory and Erika P. Rodríguez. The abaca and piña silk curtains were crafted in collaboration with Agnes Anna Szabo.
Exhibition History
2020 Temporal, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago
2020 Latin American Cinemateca of Los Angeles, CA
2019 Topologies of Excess, A Survey of Contemporary Puerto Rican Art, Harold J. Miossi Art Gallery, San Luis Obispo, CA
2018 La Ruta del Progreso, solo show, Pública, Santurce, Puerto Rico
2018 Isla Imaginaria Pfizer Building, Brooklyn, NYC
Collections
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La Ruta Panorámica es una conexión de múltiples carreteras a lo largo de sus 269 kilómetros, que se extiende de costa a costa a través del centro montañoso de Puerto Rico. La misma fue ideada por Luis Muñoz Marín, primer gobernador electo democráticamente en el 1948, un año antes de culminar su 16 años de incumbencia. Impulsado por la creación de la Constitución del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico en el 1952, Muñoz Marín se trazó como meta sacar al país de la pobreza y llevarlo a la modernidad a través del desarrollo de la infraestructura y programas sociales. Durante estos años se vió una decaída en la producción agrícola y la vida rural en la isla. Esta decaída fue fomentada por una política pública interesada en movilizar las poblaciones rurales a los centros urbanos, con fin de emplear la mano de obra industrial para las compañías extranjeras.
La narrativa oficial sobre la Ruta Panorámica presentaba “una nueva visión del turismo”, que buscaba implementar nuevos puntos de visita, áreas de descanso e instalaciones recreativas para turistas y locales. Al recorrer el camino, se logra entender la realidad post-industrial del país. A partir de éste marco histórico, Christopher Gregory, Natalia Lassalle-Morillo y Erika P. Rodríguez se han dado a la tarea de investigar el concepto de progreso a lo largo de la carretera. La Ruta del Progreso comenzó como una investigación que finalmente condujo a un viaje en automóvil por las cumbres de la Cordillera Central.
El proyecto presenta un compendio visual que explora cómo el progreso es definido por los habitantes de la ruta y examina los espacios que la conforman. El cuadro conceptual fue formado por entrevistas a través del camino en la cual los artistas le preguntaron a las personas su definición del progreso. Esta documentación busca reflexionar sobre nuestra memoria histórica y colectiva a través de la infraestructura que modificó para siempre nuestro paisaje caribeño. La Ruta del Progreso nos permite ver en forma física la idea utópica de un progreso inconcluso y quién se beneficia de ello.
