- Courtesy of the artist
- SOAP OPERA MELODRAMA VERSUS REAL HUMAN STORIES What are you watching when you're watching Rodrigo Valenzuela's Maria TV?
Words in English appear on the black screen as a woman's voice whispers in Spanish.
"What do you want me to do?" she asks, cowed.
"I want my son," he declares.
There is the familiar melodramatic sound of a violin rising as their scene fades into view, clearly a soap opera. We see as the conversation continues that the man looms over the woman, this housemaid who has ruined everything by becoming pregnant.
He gives her stern orders. After the birth, she is to forget the child and leave forever. But partway through their conversation, there's a switch in scenery. We don't see the soap opera anymore, rather a lip-synched performance of the voiced-over soap opera by a woman who looks the part more than the glamorous soap star. She's young, but tired around the eyes.
She's acting, costumed in a crisp black-and-white maid's uniform, but she is a real-life housemaid, one of 15 recruited by the artist Rodrigo Valenzuela for his latest project, Maria TV.
