La Casa de Benito

 2025 Arts in Foggy Bottom Biennial  Homeland | Hostland. Curated by Fabiola R. Delgado,

Act 1

"A corner house. A Rhino"

In 1942, Albert Camus introduced the Theater of the absurd, addressing the existential crisis as an effect of the meaning of life and its futility, but also as a consequence of the events of the 1940s, a post-second-war feeling of doubt and fear of the European society.

"La Casa de Benito" is a theatrical installation / public art project that amalgamates a series of concepts with Washington, D.C., as a backdrop.

As a collective, we took a conscious and critical path of descending into the second post-war nostalgic narrative, from where a subset of the USA contemporary narrative originated today, in the quest for a nostalgic portrayal of an interpretation of "Greatness" to be replicated. Within that context, we look into the creative response to that period to find language to propose a multitemporal and creative debate, to explore reason and its crisis vis a vis our contemporary moment. Our research led to framing the 50s through the lens of Pop Art/Fluxus in the USA/England and the Theater of the Absurd in Europe to engage in the construction of this project.

The project is anchored in the context of the Washington DC Community of Foggy Bottom, which hosts the memorial of Benito Juarez within the neighborhood near the Kennedy Center. Benito Juarez's historical transcendence conveys the idea of the "other or the stranger" -recurrent iconography of the Theater of the Absurd- as he is the sole Indigenous president in Mexican history, a complex figure homologous to Abraham Lincoln in the USA. Juárez sought to reform social laws, and his presidency aimed to establish a democratic federal republic. Ideals carved at the base as an inscription in both English and Spanish: "Respect for the rights of others is peace / El respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz."

The installation is dominated by a significant Pink Rhino character, a reference to Romanian-French playwriter Eugène Ionesco's "The Rhinoceros." As an absurd Equestrian figure riding the Rhino holding the eye (understanding and truth), Benito Juarez pointed the viewer toward George Washington, another equestrian statue nearby, as a vital reminder to observe history critically.