Macabre Dance

Artist’s country of origen: Bolivia
Materials: Video Sound: Danse macabre by Camille Saint-Saëns, Op. 40
Medium: Installation, Video, Performance
Size: 00:02:31 sec.
Year: 2013 / 2022 / 2024

In her piece Macabre Dance, Delgado intertwines performance, sound, and installation to explore the complex historical realities of Bolivia surrounding the coca leaf. She creates a tapestry made of coca leaves, onto which she projects a video showing a woman’s feet dancing to Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saëns, inspired by the play Danza macàbra by Camillo Antona Traversi, a satirical Italian work from the late 19th century. 

The femele feet projected onto the tapestry reference the traditional process of stomping coca leaves to produce coca base paste, while also symbolizing the role of Bolivian Indigenous women in the fight against the prohibition of the coca leaf and their their vulnerability to the abuses of drug trafficking, prostitution, and human trafficking embedded in the illicit economy. Delgado uses this duality to highlight the contradictions surrounding coca: a plant both sacred and commodified.

This work reflects the fundamental role of women in defending their traditions, as well as their resistance to the violence and exploitation stemming from the global drug problem, highlighting their role in care networks and in the struggle for dignity and justice.