Miss Universe/o
Camila Salcedo

Miss Universe/o: Comandanta America

In this version of Salcedo’s performance character, Miss Universe/o is dressed as a military commander. Her camo uniform is made up of fabric designed by the artist herself, which contains the map of the American continent camouflaged in various shades of pink, green and blue. In the background, there is a rotating slideshow of collages that use the map of the American continent without national borders depicted. In this performance, she starts by taking off a layer of clothing and military-style boots, so as to infer that she is “off duty”. Then, she proceeds to take out from a suitcase which was constructed out of the Venezuelan flag small flags one by one. Each flag corresponds to the twelve countries with the most Venezuelan immigrants of the Bolivarian diaspora, and they’re made from cuts of the original flag that are then weaved together again in crochet style. There’s a vinyl map of the American continent on the floor, and Miss Universe/o places each flag on top of the corresponding country. Every time she lays down a flag, she steps on top of it with her two feet, signifying new roots for Venezuelan migrants through attempting to be grounded. The amount of time she spends standing on each flag/country directly relates to the number of Venezuelans in that country. Later, she lays down on top of all the flags, so as to erase or block the borders by covering them with her body. She finishes the performance by picking up each flag and making a stack of them on top of Venezuela on the map, and lays her military necklace tag on top.