No Fun / Al final sí estábamos solos: ​​ An Analysis of the «Precariousness of Existence» from the Perspective of Video Art

Abstract

The body, hanging in a position of death, is simultaneously a visible figure and a sign of something missing: life, breath, agency. In No Fun by Eva and Franco Mattes, as well as in Al final sí estábamos solos by Israel Martínez, Eva and Franco Mattes manage to encapsulate this instant in which life vanishes and, with it, the meaning we give to corporeal presence. The suspended body, visible but absent in its essence, becomes an emblem of the precariousness of an existence, an existence that disintegrates in the emptiness of representation. This text will explore how these performances account for the sociocultural phenomenon of suicide, taking as a cornerstone an analysis from gore capitalism (Sayak Valencia) and a quartet of voices between Deleuze, Guattari, Fisher and Byung-Chul Han to recognize the structures that push the subject to the edge of its existence, revealing a life constantly threatened by its own disappearance.