The starting point for this installation is the historic 1975 space meeting between NASA’s Apollo and the Soviet Space Program’s Soyuz, intertwined with significant events that occurred in El Salvador that same year. Specifically, the celebration of the Miss Universe pageant and the Student Massacre of July 30, 1975, which marked a serious divergence between the spheres of power and the people, between capitalism and communism.

This work is part of the series ‘Tropical Space Projects’, in which the artist explores the effects of the Cold War in contemporary El Salvador. The work focuses on the tensions between convergence and divergence, communication, translation and an attempt to understand people from totally different places, languages ​​and ideas. Additionally, this work explores the attempts to achieve peace, symbolized in the handshakes between Soviets and Americans in 1975 marking the end of the ‘Race for Space,’ and between the government and the guerrilla of El Salvador during the 1992 Peace Accords celebration at the Castillo de Chapultepec in Mexico. 

While both events marked an end to hostilities in ceremonial acts, the Cold War continued for another 14 years. The violence and ideological and political polarization in El Salvador continue to this day. Both events were acts of goodwill, union, and cooperation, which nevertheless never came to be fully realized.

In the installation, built on a smaller scale and using materials and construction methods from the informal architecture and stalls of popular markets, the rockets do not come together. The meeting almost occurs… or if did occur… it was in another space, in another time …

This piece was originally presented for the 21 Bienal de Arte Paiz, 2018, curated by Gerardo Mosquera.