ARCHAEOLOGIES OF LOOKING: CRITICAL REACTIVATION OF THE VIDEO-INSTALLATION THE EXPULSION OF THE MOORS (1990) BY RAÚL RUIZ

Abstract

Based on documents and interviews, this essay recovers the installation entitled The Expulsion of the Moors (1990) by Chilean filmmaker Raúl Ruiz, which defines a politics of representation and the audience based on questioning the experience of the otherness. To achieve that goal, the paper discusses the methodological operation carried out with the documents, the visuality of the installation based on its images and materialities, and a theory of reception in dialogue with Ruiz’ films and Poéticas (2013). Finally, I forward specific conclusions regarding the speculative, interdisciplinary and intermedial relationships between cinema and visual arts and regarding what I term an “archeology of looking” carried out by Ruiz through this exhibition and in which this research participates through its documentary exercise.