Juan Cevallos - Photographer

1996 -2005

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Between 1996 and 2005, Ecuador went through a period of political, economic, and social instability, the government involved in corruption scandals, misuse of funds, and abuse of authority caused the popular uprising and social protests throughout the country, clashes of the citizens against the public force caused deaths, injuries and the overthrow of three presidents in a row. Although each president was democratically elected during the official voting, none ended his official term and for 9 years Ecuador had 7 presidents among officers and interim. This video 1996 -2005 (04:03 min), is a criticism not only of these years of political instability and repression of social protest but it is also a reminder that we are the citizens who choose the rulers and despite the fact that we have the right to protest and to manifest ourselves if the rulers harm the nation, it is our responsibility also to choose politicians who represent us wisely during the elections.

Inspired by the work of the artist Bill Morrison and Martin Arnold I decided to make my video with scenes or fragments of videos recorded by someone else, in my case I used chronological scenes of news that transmitted the overthrow of the three presidents to whom I refer. Then I modified its aesthetics by editing the duration of the video by accelerating it or making it slower. The repetition of some scenes helped reinforce the message I want to show. Finally, I amalgamate everything with ink scenes referring to the fragility of collective memory over time.

1996 - 2005 (04:03 min) is a documentary - experimental testimony that shows a short cycle of fights, violence, and disagreement for almost a decade between politicians and citizens, where it seems that after many years we continue to apply the same recipe today, in a country where the same political actors of that decade are still elected and govern in Ecuador, and citizens continue to protest in the streets.

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