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Zoë Heyn-Jones


Al lado, afuera. // beside, outside: The Performance of Solidarity between Archive and Repertoire in Guatemala and Canad
Year:
2018

Location(s):
Guatemala City, Guatemala; Tkaronto (Toronto), so-called Canada.

Co-authors:
Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA); Latin A

My research-creation dissertation investigates the question 'how are human rights enacted/performed?’ by examining solidarity activism in Guatemala and the hemispheric networks that enable it. The essay film al lado, afuera. // beside, outside. (2018, 21 min.), a synthesis of interviews with contemporary activists looks at human rights accompaniment—the process of situating oneself as an unarmed volunteer, assuming a physical presence alongside social activists who are victims of political threats, in order to dissuade violence, bear witness, and activate international solidarity networks. 

How are human rights enacted and performed in networks of solidarity between Guatemala and Canada?

The performative repertoire of accompaniment activism is explored upon the backdrop of the LAWG (Latin American Working Group)’s collection of solidarity documents (1965-1997) and a large wall drawing that maps networks of solidarity activism, thereby contextualizing this little-known embodied activist practice and exploring entanglements between the material archive and the ephemeral repertoire.



Photographic prints of selected LAWG documents highlight the material and historical foundation of today’s accompaniment activism in Guatemala. By continuing to scan these documents in the gallery space as a durational performance throughout the exhibition, I highlight the labour performed in solidarity activism, and the change of state from paper materials to digital files, thereby mirroring of the trajectory from pre-Internet campaigns of letter-writing, info bulletins, flyers and posters, etcetera to today’s digital forms of solidarity mobilization, and the various temporalities of solidarity and performance. 
Resources:
Performing Hospitality, Speaking Solidarity.pdf

Heyn-Jones_Z_ 2018_PhD.pdf

Collaborators:
Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA); Celeste Mayorga Urbina; Latin America Work Group Resource Centre @ the Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLAC), York University; Terra Long; Eva Kolcze.

Installation documentation: Eva Kolcze

Support:
Ontario Graduate Scholarship; Paavo and Aino Lukkari Human Rights Fellowship, Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLAC), York University; Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime & Security, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University; Provost Scholarship, York University.

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