Susana Pilar DELAHANTE MATIENZO
Alma (Soul), 2019 (detail)

single channel audio record; 68’
Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Continua

Delahante Matienzo has defined herself as a performance artist for almost twenty years, focusing her expressions on her own body, soul and past, projecting these leitmotifs into broader historical and social contexts, including decolonisation processes. Decades of police brutality, systemic injustice and inequality against African Americans in the United States provide the framework for this sound installation by Delahante Matienzo. Her audio work Alma (Soul) is the documentation of a performance that is a reparative experiment through sound: in terms of its overall effect, it is an unrepeatable improvisational musical event in which the artist connects the past and the source of trauma through the musical experience of the participants at the performance site. In 1967, Detroit became the scene of one of the bloodiest riots in 20th century North American history. Delahante Matienzo’s performance is a tribute to the band The Dramatics, who, among many others, were the accidental victims of an exceptionally brutal police action between 23 and 25 July. After a concert at the Fox Theatre, the band, seeking refuge from the riots, rented a room at the Algiers Motel, where a police action happened to take place, still shrouded in an array of unclear circumstances – subsequent trials have not resulted in the conviction of any of the officers. Founding members Cleveland Larry Reed and Roderick Davis survived the police action, while Fred Temple, the band’s clearly unarmed valet, a mere 18 years of age, was shot dead by the police. The two survivors left the band afterwards. The performance was filmed at the site of the hotel in Virginia Park that was demolished in 1979 as part of a rezoning project. The improvisation of soul and bolero style music with local African American musicians will remain as a resource for the future: the artist intends to use music to create a positive message for young African Americans in Detroit, moving past the unjust racial preconceptions that have been embedded in society for decades.

KÁLMÁN Borbála