Irrigation
Title: Irrigation
Year: 2021
Measures: Variables
Technique: HD Video (color, sound)
Duration: 44’ 21”
Edition: 2/3
This body of work comprised of video, sound, photographs, drawings, wall murals, maps, and objects addresses the role of irrigation as a life support system in Pichingal, rural town in the central zone of Chile, where the artist has its roots. Benitez investigates this practice, the collective infrastructures of channels and the users communities of waters that kept alive the agriculture in this area: their paths, types, ways of doing things, traditions, dedicated people, local authorities, etc. The video follows the flow of water, from the river Lontué to Channel The Poor of Pichingal, until you get to the land agricultural, setting the river as the source, around which revolve the different users, by tracking the knowledge about the flows of water embedded in each person. The video focuses on the relationship between the body and the territory, in how users share and guide the water, and how the earth, the water, and an ancient practice define the movements of the body.




