Daniela Ortiz
Describing herself as an artist and a mother, Daniela Ortiz (1985, Cuzco, Peru) anchors her work both in the quotidian and the political. Working across video, painting and artists’ books, Ortiz has developed a practice that is at once marked by playfulness and imbued with decolonial thought, allowing her to expose the persistence of coloniality in contemporary societies. Accordingly, Ortiz explores legal systems, as well as historical and current events that evidence the racism, racialisation, and xenophobia pervading Western societies. She has notably investigated Europe’s migration control system as an example of the systemic violence that is mainly targeted towards people from formerly colonised countries.
Emblematic of these themes is the series of paintings The Rebellion of the Roots (France) (2022) which were created specifically for a group exhibition at Palais de Tokyo titled Réclamer la terre (Reclaim the Earth). This body of work expands on the 2021 series The Rebellion of the Roots by focusing on the colonial history of France. Weaving together painting and text, Ortiz uses the aesthetics of children’s books and tongue-in-cheek humour to create fictions in which oryxes, Kalalou plants and even ashes defy, and eventually overcome, colonial and imperialistic forces. Their rebellion succeeds because they are either inhabited or nurtured by Haitian revolutionaries who were killed by the French colonial regime, such as Toussaint Louverture (1742 – 1758) and François Mackandal (1730 – 1758). Much like ex-votos, each set of paintings depicts a story of anti-colonial struggle that ends with a vignette honouring the plant, animal or spirit that made vindication possible.
Artworks
Daniela Ortiz The Rebellion of the Roots (France), I, 2022 Ensemble de 4 acryliques sur bois
30 x 20 cm chacune
Collection Mudam Luxembourg
Acquisition 2022
© Courtesy de l’artiste et Laveronica Gallery
Daniela Ortiz The Rebellion of the Roots (France), II, 2022 Ensemble de 4 acryliques sur bois
30 x 20 cm chacune
Collection Mudam Luxembourg
Acquisition 2022
© Courtesy de l’artiste et Laveronica Gallery
Daniela Ortiz The Rebellion of the Roots (France), III, 2022 Ensemble de 4 acryliques sur bois
30 x 20 cm chacune
Collection Mudam Luxembourg
Acquisition 2022
© Courtesy de l’artiste et Laveronica Gallery