Salvador Miranda (b. 1987) is a Mexican-Canadian artist and filmmaker based in Rotterdam. His work explores grand narratives and the images of our visual culture that (re)produce them. His works have been shown in IFFR (Rotterdam), Ruhrtriennale (Bochum) EYE Filmmuseum (Amsterdam), TENT (Rotterdam) Haiton Art Center (Taipei), among others. Salvador holds a Master’s in Lens-Based Media from the Piet Zwart Institute in the Netherlands (cum laude).
A Cactus, a Ladder and a Boot (2024) - A game of 'Heads Up' under the shadow of the Mexico–United States border wall. The traditional Mexican 'Lotería' cards take on a new meaning alongside the imposing barrier.
Promised Land (2023) - HD film with sound, colour, 18:34m.
Made in collaboration with Gijs van der Meer.
Promised Land follows a group of five American strangers who were asked to recreate historical moments from the Pilgrim Fathers story: their departure from Europe, their voyage on the Mayflower, and first Thanksgiving meal. Dressed in traditional costume, the pilgrims discuss what it means to re-enact the past in a time when it is being re-evaluated. Does the pilgrim mythology have any place in modern society? We let them interpret this troubled story for themselves, attempting to make meaning out of the past while reflecting on recent events, personal histories and persisting colonial legacies.
Life Eternal (2022) - 3-channel film installation, 23m.
Life Eternal tells three intertwining stories about immortality. The first story is about Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon and his legendary search for the Fountain of Youth. The second tells us of Henrietta Lacks, a poor black tobacco farmer whose cancer cells were used to create the first immortal human cell line. The final story takes up James Bedford, the first person to undergo cryogenic freezing in hope of future revival.
Through Life Eternal I wanted to explore the desires and the emotional entanglements of these characters, while touching upon the complex historical themes that jump out so vividly from them - colonialism, exploitation, and techno-utopianism. This work is a poetic dialogue on the eternal conversation on time and our attitude toward it.
Dawn Chorus (2020) - Video essay on the extinction of the Kauai O'o bird, and its digital life in online media.
This is my land…(2019) - Installation view at Garage Rotterdam, 2022
This is my land… (2019) - This is my land (2019)
2-channel film, 7:50m
This is my land… is an experimental 2-channel film examining the trial of a woman whose home is threatened by a new development project. The work explores the use of language and rhetoric, its deployment in support of incommensurable worldviews, as well as competing visions of utopia, progress and home.
An (a)historical excavation (2019) - Series of collages taking historical sites of conflict and tension, imagining their convergence across cultural geographies and time. These works imagine alternative historical possibilities that collapse ‘otherization’ through fictional archeologies.
On Holiday (2018) - Two-channel film, 3:15 minutes
Collaboration with Lotte de Jong
On Holiday is a collection of online reviews of sex workers in the Netherlands. Customers can give ratings, comments and even feedback. Many of these make reference to sex workers going "on holiday" or "away for vacation", and consequently not available to customers. Perhaps a euphemism or a happy reprieve, we are left to imagine their holidays.
Aim Down Sights (2018) - HD film, 7:33 minutes
To preview Aim Down Sights please contact info@salvadormiranda.com
Aim Down Sights is a short film exploring terrorism in gaming culture. The work explores roleplaying, both as victim and as terrorist, the dedication to these online identities, and the ultimate blurring of realities. The aesthetics of terroristic images are endlessly recreated in virtual worlds, while the immersive gaming experience creates real subjective realities.
