REQUIEM200≤, an AR installation by Violette Bule in homage to more than two hundred people murdered in Venezuela between February 2014 and February 2018 during protests against Nicolás Maduro’s autocratic regime.
Using augmented reality technology, REQUIEM200≤ makes it possible to learn the identity, as well as the cause and place of death, of every victim. Upon downloading the free AR app, users can access this information by placing their mobile devices on one of thirteen maps of Venezuelan states included in the installation. The project calls attention to the brutal political repression carried out by Maduro’s regime.
The installation’s name alludes to the difficulty of obtaining reliable data about political violence in Venezuela. Months of painstaking research have allowed Bule to account for over two hundred people murdered during protests against Maduro’s regime. Considering the lack of trustworthy official figures, however, the artist acknowledges the impossibility of corroborating the exact number of victims. The staging of REQUIEM200≤ coincides with growing international condemnation of the authoritarian drift of Maduro’s regime. In early February, the International Criminal Court announced it will investigate accusations against the Venezuelan regime for crimes against humanity. In that regard, Bule notes that most victims commemorated in her installation were killed by gunshots in the head or chest.
