Rebecca Locke

Lugares que fui, 2012
HD Video, colour, sound, 6 min

Lugares qui fui is a video piece fused with the artist’s sound piece Movement in Empty Streets, which is paired with the audio recording Emmanuel’s Car—together they comprise a complete work. The narrated audio of Emmanuel’s Car, central to the collective piece, is a story of life, of hope, of cars and driving, of a journey made. The narrator, who as a boy lived on the streets of Lima, tells his story; as taxi driver he becomes guide to the city of his former experience. His off-screen presence is felt throughout the video Lugares que fui, which loosely translated means ‘everywhere I’ve ever been’. The narrative weaves themes of redemption, of vibrancy emerging from rubbish—from nothing; the images reference the story, frequently shot from a child’s sight line. The short video Lugares que fui is a triptych of colour, woven from lo-fi footage made by the artist in and around Lima, Peru. The film collects scenes snatched from the mundane, from movement, and from a journey. Lugares que fui is a quilt of light, colour, and traffic—of the everyday, interwoven with music—the artist’s composition Movement in Empty Streets which re-uses sampled sounds of the city. The film builds a transient beauty from wasted video and forgotten moments, echoing the narrative, and evoking the theme of redemption from the artist’s recent series Gold junk.