Politicians Under Surveillance

Politicians are under suspicion. As citizens, we witness in astonishment their maneuvers to curb a crisis for which they constantly try to put the blame on us.

But in reality, those that truly keep them under strict surveillance are the markets, loaded with unlimited power that allows them to overthrow legitimate governments, imposing in their place a race of technocrats with suspicious pasts in the service of the crisis.

With these things in mind, on November 19, 2011, a day of reflection before the general elections in Spain, we took to the streets of Madrid in order to present a simulation of the surveillance of politicians with the aim of generating a debate, or simply a thought, among the people who strolled through the streets on their way back home.

For our installation Politicians Under Surveillance, we carried 75 fake security cameras with us, of the type that detect movement and possess an intermittent red light. We attached them to the advertising displays used by the different political parties in their electoral campaigns, observing from closeup the faces of the politicians that were digitally touched up for official photos.

It was an interesting night and, as with previous installations, people asked us about it. We hope we made them reflect for a moment about this alarming situation of the harassment of democracy.

Many thanks to Alex and Cris for helping us, especially with the logistics.

Time of installation: 4 hours
Damages: none
Exhibition time: 10 hours