Abstract
“Tierra de nadie” engages with cultural heritage, bodies, and territory by exposing the violent legacies of colonialism inscribed on the skin of the Global South. In this visceral performance by Cuban artist Carlos Martiel, the artist stands motionless with eight miniature flags pierced into the flesh of his torso—each representing a European nation involved in the colonization and territorial division of Africa between the 1880s and World War I. Martiel’s body becomes a living archive, bearing the marks of imperial conquest, forced displacement, and exploitation. Through this static, almost sculptural act, the artist offers a carnal narrative of historical trauma, where each puncture evokes the systematic plunder of lands and peoples. The performance transforms the body into a symbolic territory, wounded and occupied, echoing the enduring violence of colonial extraction and its ongoing effects on diasporic and marginalized communities.
“Tierra de nadie” is a work by Cuban artist Carlos Martiel, first presented at Galleria Continua in Paris, France, in 2022, curated by Laura Salas Redondo. Through a static, almost sculptural performance, the piece references conquest, colonization, territorial annexation, and the exploitation of human beings and natural resources in the “Global South.”
“I stand in the gallery with 8 hand-held flags pierced into the skin of my torso. The flags used represent the European countries that invaded, colonized, and territorially divided Africa between the 1880s and the beginning of World War I: the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, France, Portugal, and Spain.”
By placing his own body at the center of the performative act, Carlos Martiel constructs an epidermal, carnal narrative that materializes the pain of African populations forced into diaspora, illustrating this violence as a penetration that tears the skin. These incisions, like traces, mark involuntary displacements, occupation, and the illegal plundering of their body-territories—acts carried out fiercely and systematically through slavery and subjugation imposed over centuries by rapacious colonial policies that remain in effect to this day.
