Flowers of Antimony

Flowers of antimony
Mayra Barraza / SAL

Beatriz Santiago Muñoz presents the world premiere of her new film on anarchism “Flowers of Antimony”.

Last November, Puerto Rico-based Beatriz Santiago Muñoz presented the world premiere of her new film "Flowers of Antimony" at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco.

Santiago produced “Flowers of Antimony” over the course of last fall’s Capp Street Project artist-in-residence program at the CCA Wattis Institute, working with a number of Bay Area anarchist and radical-leftist individuals and groups, including the Long Haul (based in South Berkeley) and Free Radio Berkeley (a now-silenced alternative radio station).

CCA Wattis Institute says of her project:

“Her film explores the complex issue of anarchism and how it has evolved from its original incarnation—a group-centered, utopian practice—to encompass a variety of strategies, from tree-dwelling protests to veganism to open-source computing, enacted by individuals with diverse motivations who come together for specific activities and moments. Santiago mirrors this within her film, as she investigates alternative forms of protest and different possibilities for the creation of social change… The participants act out unscripted, improvised narratives that exist in the collective memory or as official histories.”

Beatriz Santiago Muñoz (Puerto Rico, 1972) currently lives and works in Puerto Rico after receiving an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1997. Her film and videos are documentaries in which her collaborators appear haphazardly to effect social and political change. Her work has been featured in group exhibitions such as “Infinite Island: Contemporary Caribbean Art” at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York (2007) and “Slash Fiction” at Gasworks in London (2007).