Regina José Galindo's Voluntary Curfew at Le Plateau, Paris

Regina José Galindo, who won a Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale as a young artist, presented a performance at Le Plateau in Paris from December 15, 2005 to January 15, 2006. Her work addresses violence in Guatemala, her home country, and the fragility of the human body. In one performance, she walked from Constitution Square to the National Palace after dipping her feet in human blood, protesting the presidential candidacy of Efraín Ríos Montt, accused of corruption and massacres. In 'Golpes,' she produced sound by hitting herself with a leather belt, echoing a poem about her father's violence against her mother. For the Paris exhibition, she responded to the November 2005 French banlieue riots and the government's state of emergency and curfew by imposing a voluntary curfew (toque de queda) on herself. For ten days, she confined herself to the gallery space with only survival essentials, exploring solitude, distress, and boredom. The installation included wall drawings, texts, videos, and traces suggesting a possible suicide. The exhibition was curated by María Inés Rodríguez.