Fundamento Palo Monte (Silueta Series, Gunpowder Works)

Directed by Ana Mendieta

Super-8 film transferred to high-definition digital support, colour, silent. Fundamento Palo Monte belongs to the Siluetas, a series of ephemeral works that the artist made between 1973 and 1981 and then recorded on film or in photographs. Made in Iowa, Fundamento Palo Monte shows a form hollowed from the ground and filled with white gunpowder, with three stones in the position of the heart. The fire consumes the silhouette from the base to the head. At times, the flames and thick white smoke obscure the form in the ground, which then reappears through the thinning wisps of smoke as the powder burns out. What remains is the charred figure, the work of earth, fire and air. The time of combustion and the time of the film are one.