PALOMA POLO

Madrid, Spain, 1983
Received the Fundación Botín Grant in 2014

What is Thought in the Thought of People, 2015
HD video film. 17’
6 Ink drawings on paper (collaboration with Leonilo Doloricon)
3 of 50 × 70 cm / 2 of 35 × 50 cm / 1 of 40.5 × 30.5 cm
Acquired in 2017

What is Thought in the Thought of People is a research and audiovisual production project developed in the Philippines that explores how subjugated knowledge and grassroots struggles challenge dominant narratives of global capitalism.

Drawing from Polo´s fieldwork in Casiguran, Aurora province, the piece is based on an oral testimony by the Agta narrator Vic Abajon, recorded in 2014, recounting an autobiographical episode that oscillates between the mythical and the real.  The story is set in a territory threatened by plans to establish a Special Economic Zone, which would involve the expropriation and displacement of indigenous and peasant communities. The work brings together voice and drawing to reflect on the relationship between territory, violence, and resistance.