[Artist Gabriela León is photographed on the riot-torn streets of Oaxaca in the When I saw the article Vicente Fox Disrupted in NYC, I couldn't help but think of our own "guerrilla press corps" idea. As the article notes, "Fox, to his credit, or that of pr handlers who have prepped all world "leaders" for similar circumstances in light of Kerry's embarrassing and cowardly inaction while a questioner was tased, said aloud that this is still a free country and that people have a right to speak and the audience erupted in applause and the goons backed off." Some of the questioners were nonetheless later ejected through the front door, reportedly breaking a window in the process. I looked for a picture or video to post, but couldn't find anything from that event.

But I did find the picture shown here, of a completely different form of protest over the situation in Oaxaca. Resident artist Gabriela León crafted a "baracada" dress from scavenged garbage, and had some friends film and photograph her taking a stroll through the zócalo (market square), past federal police in full riot gear, in her outfit. She's now assembled the dress, a video of her walk, and other related articles into a traveling exhibit, currently being shown at the University of California, Riverside, Sweeney Art Gallery. See "A Walk of Conscience" for the full story.

Note: Just to be clear, our own "guerrilla press corps" was never meant to have such a particular political agenda, beyond, perhaps, promoting iconoclasm and independent thinking. And of course free expression—especially when it involves wonderful art made from salvaged trash!

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey
we did that with fox in nyc.. alas, no pics, and those who took 'em were fox sycopahnts like:http://www.flickr.com/photos/aguavodka/1533178133/in/set-72157602348285140/ who likely got pics of the incidents but did not share em. now we need to stop "plan mexico" being considered by the congress now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfImBQGg6RM