Democracia

Democracia asks the questions, “What is Western democracy?” and “How is it being forced onto the rest of the world?” Their work for Tomorrow, Welfare State / Smashing the Ghetto, 2007, consisting of four connected screens, is Democracia’s most recent work and was created in the region of El Salobral in Madrid, Spain. El Salobral is one of Europe’s biggest slums, and due to the regional assembly’s decision, it has been under a demolition order since the summer of 2006. Democracia have filmed the demolition site and created video artwork using the footage. However, rather than simply recording this process, the artists hope to show a metaphorical reproduction of the present age in which cities are restructured according to pragmatic rather than utopian imperatives.