The Good Life/La buena vida

Project

The Good Life/La buena vida

The Good Life/La buena vida is a multi-part video project composed of over 360 video interviews with pedestrians on the streets of twelve cities in Latin America shot between 2005 and 2008. The work examines processes of democratization as they relate to U.S. interventionist policies in the region.

The conversations and dialogues recorded in Bogotá, Buenos Aires, Caracas, Guatemala, La Paz, Managua, México City, Panamá, Santiago, San Salvador, São Paulo, and Tegucigalpa, cover topics such as individuals' perceptions of U.S. foreign policy, democracy, leadership, and governance. The result is a wide spectrum of responses and opinions, which vary according to local situations and specific forms of government in each country.

The Good Life/La buena vida is formed of an Internet Archive, a video installation and a series of commissioned texts and articles.

Launch Project Website

Downloand Project Book

Year

2008

Materials & Dimensions

Database online documentary
13-channel video installation

Credits

Idea, camera, editing & direction
Carlos Motta

Web-design
Freckles Studio

Web Programming
Dave Della Costa

Writers
Eva Díaz
Tatiana Flores
Maria Mercedes Gómez
Stamatina Gregory
Ashley Hunt
Naeem Mohaiemen
Carlos Motta
Oliver Ressler
Juan Gabriel Tokatlián.

Translations
Cora Sueldo
Cristina Motta

Funding
Guggenheim Fellowship (New York)
Art in General, New Commissions Program (New York)
Art Matters Foundation Grant (New York)
The Experimental Television Center’s Finishing Funds program supported by the Electronic Media and Film Program at the New York State Council on the Arts (New York)
Kevin Bruk Gallery (Miami)
Alberto Chehebar
Ella Fontanals Cisneros
Solita Mishaan
Embassy of Colombia in Argentina
Government of City of Buenos Aires Office of Culture for Estudio Abierto (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Swing Space Program (New York)
rum46, Aarhus, Denmark

Carlos Motta

Project