Repulsion System for
Productive Lands
(2022)
Performative action documented in video
Video, HD h.264, colour, stereo, 9:30 min
watch trailer on Vimeo
Fidel Castro grown Cuba’s livestock to its highest level of inefficiency. His obsession came from his will to modernize the agro-industrial sector but also from the urgent need to create a communist socio-political system against the capitalism. As a consequence, Cuba’s livestock industry collapsed -like almost all the others-, sinking the island into an economic crisis right up to the present day.“Repulsion System for Productive Lands” is a performative action carried out by Adrian Melis in Argentina's pampas region. This territory is a world reference in the livestock industry. Inspired by the old Scandinavian Kulning songs, where the owner attracts his cows with the sound of his voice, Melis offers to those present a reading of ideological speeches by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. As the reading progresses, the cattle expands and flee in their attempt to get as far away as possible from the speaker's presence, leaving in its wake an uninhabited and empty terrain.
video stills
