la espera

june 2024
animated short film

In her short animated film "la aspera" (the wait) Corina Vettore explores the turn of the century. VHS footage sourced from her parents' archive captures an uncertain Argentina on New Year's Eve as it transitions into the 2000s. This moment of collective liminality (the threshold, or gateway, between two stages) is recollected by the poetic reflections of her mother rendered as an avatar that uncannily embodies her mother's face in an estranged and deadpan demeanor. Her mother's tired voice reflects the weariness of a country that has greatly suffered from years of dictatorship and neoliberal economic reforms over the 20th century. What lies ahead for her and her country of birth in the 21st century? As unsettling omens, Argentinian pesos, pots, and pans rotate in a black void, foreshadowing the financial crash that would ensue just a year later. In 2001, the Argentine banks collapsed, withholding people's life savings and pension funds, plunging the economy into free fall, and leading to widespread protest. Enraged citizens took to the streets, clanging pots and pans as acts of resistance. The words of Corina's mother in the film were written and recorded by her in 2024, the year the country is witnessing its worst-ever inflation in history, caused by the newly elected radical libertarian president Javier Milei - a crazed figure who openly and repeatedly entertained the idea of selling children on the free market during his campaign trail. The hopeful cheers, captured in the VHS footage, celebrating the turn of the millennia are unknowing of this future. The dissonant soundtrack produced by Corina Vettore by mixing the iconic Argentinian song 'Alfonsina y el Mar' further underpins the foreboding atmosphere of the film.