Ender Rodriguez /VEN/
Devours Bolívar in 4.2 Steps, 2020
Video, 4:15
The video performance in the form of an educational video is an immediate and organic response of the Venezuelan artist to the unbearable political situation and chaos in his native country. The tutorial, also functioning as an auto-catharsis, is a conceptual recipe to help people symbolically swallow the unjust economic system in 4.2 didactic steps. The author of the video performance, who, like most Venezuelans, has faced food shortages, uses the metaphor of eating banknotes (with the face of the historical figure Simón Bolívar) that have been completely devalued due to disastrous economic policies. Thus, in the midst of the covid pandemic, the artist offered the possibility of sharing frustration online while releasing it in a specifically light-hearted way, charged with a harsh irony.
Camera: Porfirio Parada
Editor: Joshua Rodriguez
Ender Rodríguez
is a Venezuelan multidisciplinary artist based in San Cristóbal. In 1997 he graduated in Fine Arts from CINGRAF in San Cristóbal, Táchira, Venezuela.
In his work, he uses media such as drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, installation, poetry, video and action art, using all kinds of materials and their expressive possibilities. Typically, he employs gestural and performative approaches, incorporating humour and irony, referring to Joseph Beuys’ statement that “every act is a work of art”.