CARGO

During the month of July 1997 a sealed container traveled from Gibraltar to tangiers across the straits dividing the African Continent from Europe and back to Algeciras Spain, completing a triangular journey across the three frontiers dominating the entrance to the Mediterranean.

The merchandise: a video installation.

CARGO video installation was commsioned for Almadraba an international site-specific art exhibition on both shores of the Straits of Gibraltar 1997.

GUANTANAMERA an installation by Francis Gomila & Alonso Gil for MADRID ABIERTO 07

Deep in one of Madrid’s Metro ventilator shafts (located in the heart of the Capital, Gran Via), a powerful sound system played all the known cover versions of the Cuban classic GUANTANAMERA 24/7 for a month.

A reflection on the use of music as an instrument of torture by US Armed force’s Psychological Operations Company on their detainees in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Guantanamo.

An invitation to participate:  The artists invited the public at large; musicians, DJs, Rap & Flamenco artists, to record their own version of song as well as gathering the many versions that already exist.

FUCK OFF 2010. 

In "wall of shame" Gomila travels close to the northern edge of the 2700 Klm wall constructed by Morocco to keep the Saharawi people from returning to their homeland. As Saharawi activists protest, under the surveillance of the Moroccan army guarding the wall, Gomila traces a GPS track forming the words “FUCK OFF”. The GPS data drawing was uploaded to Google Earth as a protest to the continuing occupation of the Western Sahara.

PISS FOR PEACE - PIS POR LA PAZ FÓSFORO

FRANCIS GOMILA & BETTINA SEMMER Tifariti el Sáhara Occidental ARTIFARITI 09

Phosphorus was discovered by the German alchemist Hennig Brand in 1669 in an attempt to produce gold by distilling human urine. The distillation process yielded a white fluorescent substance that, in addition to emitting light, glowed when exposed to air.

Phosphorus is of great importance to agriculture and food production. The global demand for fertilizers has led to massive phosphate production. There are large deposits of phosphate rock in the Moroccan-occupied territories of Western Sahara, which have been illegally exploited.

Using human urine provided by the population of Tifariti, and following a formula found online, artists Francis Gomila and Bettina Semmer recreated Brand's experiment as a protest against illegal mining and phosphate exploitation in Western Sahara.

The scientific symbol for Phosphorous was drawn on the Sahara sand and was uploaded to Google Earth as an indelible symbol of the illegal exploitation of phosphorus in the Western Sahara

DVD BURN. 2010.

A proposal to "burn" an image on blank DVD discs using the concentrated heat of the sun.
Two circles and two lines of blank DVD's were installed at four cardinal points of the Gobi Desert. Each DVD's position recorded on GPS. After a year the artist plans to return to the desert, recover the DVDs, play them, to see if an image was burnt by the sun.
Produced for the International Desert Art Project in Mongolia.