Pyrotechnic performance, October 10, 2020. Still photography: Dan Williamson & JI YAng
Pyrotechnic performance, October 10, 2020. Still photography: Dan Williamson & JI YAng
Pyrotechnic performance, October 10, 2020. Still photography: Dan Williamson & JI YAng
Pyrotechnic performance, October 10, 2020. Still photography: Dan Williamson & JI YAng
Pyrotechnic performance, October 10, 2020. Still photography: Dan Williamson & JI YAng
Pyrotechnic performance, October 10, 2020. Still photography: Dan Williamson & JI YAng
Pyrotechnic performance, October 10, 2020. Still photography: Dan Williamson & JI YAng
Pyrotechnic performance, October 10, 2020. Still photography: Dan Williamson & JI YAng
Pyrotechnic performance, October 10, 2020. Still photography: Dan Williamson & JI YAng
Pyrotechnic performance, October 10, 2020. Still photography: Dan Williamson & JI YAng
Pyrotechnic performance, October 10, 2020. Still photography: Dan Williamson & JI YAng
Pyrotechnic performance, October 10, 2020. Still photography: Dan Williamson & JI YAng
Pyrotechnic performance, October 10, 2020. Still photography: Dan Williamson & JI YAng
Pyrotechnic performance, October 10, 2020. Still photography: Dan Williamson & JI YAng
Pyrotechnic performance, October 10, 2020. Still photography: Dan Williamson & JI YAng
Pyrotechnic performance, October 10, 2020. Still photography: Dan Williamson & JI YAng
Sound installation at Gallery 400, quadraphonic sound
The Last Judgement is an immersive installation and pyrotechnic performance that uses large-scale sculptures and sound to narrate the struggles and resistance of the Mexican community of La Villita, in Chicago. The Last Judgement is a co-created, participatory project that subverts and contests the first conversion play performed in Mexico, written in the 16th century by Franciscan priest Fray Andrés de Olmos. The theater of conversion introduced pyrotechnics to frighten and indoctrinate the indigenous populations, and it is the first documented use of pyrotechnics in the continent. The new script revolves around issues of gentrification, environmental justice and deportation, and was developed through conversations, meetings and art workshops with community members (activists, teachers, students, community organizers, and local artists). The structures were built in collaboration with Artsumex collective, whose members traveled to Chicago from Tultepec, Mexico. The play became an effigy-burning event: pyrotechnic effects used by the Franciscans to frighten were transformed into tools of celebration and protest to perform an allegorical collective purging of social ills, to correct official narratives, to bridge between dislocated communities, and to envision new futures through collective destruction.
Gallery shots, Gallery 400 at UIC & Sullivan Galleries, Chicago, 2019 / Documentation of structures and photographs of La Villita
Gallery shots, Gallery 400 at UIC & Sullivan Galleries, Chicago, 2019 / Documentation of structures and photographs of La Villita
Gallery shots, Gallery 400 at UIC & Sullivan Galleries, Chicago, 2019 / Documentation of structures and photographs of La Villita
Gallery shots, Gallery 400 at UIC & Sullivan Galleries, Chicago, 2019 / Documentation of structures and photographs of La Villita
Gallery shots, Gallery 400 at UIC & Sullivan Galleries, Chicago, 2019 / Documentation of structures and photographs of La Villita
Gallery shots, Gallery 400 at UIC & Sullivan Galleries, Chicago, 2019 / Documentation of structures and photographs of La Villita
Gallery shots, Gallery 400 at UIC & Sullivan Galleries, Chicago, 2019 / Documentation of structures and photographs of La Villita
Gallery shots, Gallery 400 at UIC & Sullivan Galleries, Chicago, 2019 / Documentation of structures and photographs of La Villita
Gallery shots, Gallery 400 at UIC & Sullivan Galleries, Chicago, 2019 / Documentation of structures and photographs of La Villita
Gallery shots, Gallery 400 at UIC & Sullivan Galleries, Chicago, 2019 / Documentation of structures and photographs of La Villita
Gallery shots, Gallery 400 at UIC & Sullivan Galleries, Chicago, 2019 / Documentation of structures and photographs of La Villita
Gallery shots, Gallery 400 at UIC & Sullivan Galleries, Chicago, 2019 / Documentation of structures and photographs of La Villita
Gallery shots, Gallery 400 at UIC & Sullivan Galleries, Chicago, 2019 / Documentation of structures and photographs of La Villita
Gallery shots, Gallery 400 at UIC & Sullivan Galleries, Chicago, 2019 / Documentation of structures and photographs of La Villita
Gallery shots, Gallery 400 at UIC & Sullivan Galleries, Chicago, 2019 / Documentation of structures and photographs of La Villita
Gallery shots, Gallery 400 at UIC & Sullivan Galleries, Chicago, 2019 / Documentation of structures and photographs of La Villita
Gallery shots, Gallery 400 at UIC & Sullivan Galleries, Chicago, 2019 / Documentation of structures and photographs of La Villita
Exhibition curated by: Lorelei Stewart
Teaching artists: Silvia Inés Gonzalez, William Estrada, Juan-Carlos Perez
Pyrotechnic play directed by: Adela Goldbard
Script: Adela Goldbard, Pedro Antonio García
Produced by: Adela Goldbard, Hadley Austin, Lorelei Stewart
Fabrication of structures: ARTSUMEX Collective (Jesús Sanabria, Amauri Sanabria, Eduardo Pérez, Víctor Rojas)
Sound Design: Rogelio Sosa
Production Assistant: Marcela Torres, Li-Ming Hu
Cinematography by: Yoni Goldstein
Special Effects: Cesar Benitez, 5Alarm
Fireworks Stage Manager: Sarah Skaggs
Lighting Designer: Mike Durst
Major support for The Last Judgment / El Juicio Final was provided by The Joyce Foundation as a 2019 Joyce Award and by Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (Mexico).
Additional support was provided by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; Illinois Humanities; the School of Art & Art History, the College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts, University of Illinois at Chicago; the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency; and the Chicago Park District.
Agradecemos al Sistema de apoyos a la creación y a proyectos culturales (Fonca) el estímulo proporcionado para la realización de este video.