Artist in attendance — In person & online
Microscope is very pleased to present a solo screening of film and video works by New York-based artist Anto(n) Astudillo. The screening will take place both in person and online, with a Q&A with the artist following the screening.
In the seven works on the program, Astudillo considers the effects of two concurrent personal transitions: the gender affirming process of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and their experience as a US immigrant from Chile during the past twelve years.
Social and political upheaval is also at the center of the artist’s concerns and practice, including several works on the program. In “The People’s Revolt” (2022) we witness the social unrest in Santiago in the fall of 2019 — just before the arrival of Covid — as the artist takes part in the protests. And in “Golpes” (2020) we revisit Pinochet’s 1973 coup d'état and reflect on its ramifications and remnants, such as bullet holes on buildings’ façades or views of the Atacama Desert where many were made to disappear by the State.
Their diaristic approach, especially the first-person voiceover, provides a poetic, personal and sincere commentary to the captivating images shot from real life on both film and video formats. The words used in the autobiographical work “While I Read This Letter” (2024) candidly delineate the in-between state of someone who has left home, in search for or in need of another.
Astudillo’s “How to Make an Avatar & Render My Body” (2023), visually depicts the process of its title as a way to elaborate on their experience of the HRT process, using audio documentation of the artist's changing voice combined, among others, with footage of the artist creating the motions of the avatar which we see beside them on the split screen.
Astudillo will be available for a Q&A following the screening.
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Anto(n) Astudillo (they/he) is a Lenapehoking/NYC-based filmmaker, performance artist, and curator of trans experience from Wallmapu (Santiago, Chile). Astudillo works with 16mm film, video, and performance to create moving portraits of personal and political themes, navigating dynamic interconnections between embodied practices and experimental cinema.