Marco Godoy
Marco Godoy in El Escorial
Marco Godoy at El Escorial
‘Al Servicio de la Visión’ offers a reflection on individual responsibility in breaking away from all forms of violence. Godoy appropriates the symbolism of authority to construct messages of nonviolent opposition to it. The semiotics of power are subverted to create new meanings in which the sense of sight takes center stage as an intellectual attribute that prevents us from becoming aggressors.
As an eyewitness to the public protests and riots that broke out in Santiago, Chile, in October 2019, Godoy confirms the portrait of a society mired in despair and, as a result, unable to escape the spiral of violent acts inflicted upon it. In response to this context, he devises a symbolic action in which the tangible is intertwined with the intangible, where light and reflection protect against physical aggression and lay bare the shame of those who blinded 407 people and repressed thousands more.
The artist distributed more than 50 mirrored riot shields among the protesters, thereby empowering them to defend themselves by blinding their attackers without resorting to any form of violence, while forcing the repressive forces to confront their own reflection. Sight—the sense that most deeply connects us to the world and serves as an abstract projection of the future yet to come—now has its integrity protected; it is thus redeemed from its status as a victim and positioned as a source of authority over one’s own destiny.
