“Perro que ladra no muerde” (Barking dog, don’t bite) takes as its case study the lynching of the manager of Imbabura’s textile factory by the employees, that took place in Atutanqui, Ecuador, on the July 1st, 1965. The factory’s manager, Josep Vilageliu, was the artist’s grandfather. In this forensic autopsy of the occurred events, the social and historical conditions that surrounded this event arise, through the work Vilageliu tries to build a multi-sited archive between personal, local and global around colonial violence. “Perro que ladra no muerde” (Barking dog, don’t bite) is a creative and research project on the invisibility of the structural and cultural violence of Latin America’s colonial history.

After the nations claimed their independence, foreign capital perpetuated the oppression and exploited ways of colonialism by other means. The invisibility and silencing of the indigenous population has been the historical framework in which colonial violence has been perpetrated for decades and centuries. One of the great violence investigators, sociologist Johan Galtung, explains that “every direct violent act (visible) is the continuation or response to structural violence (invisible) and cultural violence (also invisible).” 

As the postcolonial theoretical Franz Fanon indicates, the case of the popular lynching is part of a collective catharsis to get rid of the oppressive structure and of the self empowerment against the colonialism cultural denigration. The violent act translates into reality the invisibility of colonial violence. This photographic project is based on mock-ups, animations, direct photographs, 3d recreations and a cartography of the facts. As a background to the comprehension of power structures through the legal, criminal and human evidence.

Artist Bio: 

Arnau Blanch Vilageliu (b.1983, Barcelona) works with the image from its narrative and speculative potential, focusing his work between photography, research, and appropriationism. Death is present in most of his current projects, from perspectives as varied as the death of a relative (Perros que ladran, no muerden), the representation of death in “red press” newspapers (Sin muerto no hay emoción) and digital death (Rumblig Dark). Vilageliu specialised in photographic essay at the IEFC (Institut d’Estudis Fotogràfics de Catalunya), moving to New York to continue his focus on documentary photography at the ICP (International Centre of Photography). Notably, he received the FotoPres La Caixa grant with “Everybody Needs Good Neighbours” (2014), a project that has been exhibited at the Caixa Forum Madrid (2014), Barcelona (2015) and Zaragoza (2016), Aperture Gallery, New York (2015, USA), Centro de Arte Contemporânea e Fotografia (2015, Belo Horizonte, Brazil) and Guernsey Photography Festival (England, 2016). The project was also the recipient of the PhotoEspaña Best Photo Book (2015) in the National Category. He has participated in artistic residencies including Mira Festival (Oporto, Portugal 2018), Encontro de Artistas Nuovos (Santiago de Compostela, Spain 2018) and Scan Tarragona Full Contact (Tarragona, Spain 2018). He has had several solo exhibitions such as ‘Twilight Zone’ at the Wer-haus Gallery (Barcelona, 2017), Les Bernardes (Salt, 2019), AMP (Barcelona) 2020.