My Current Work, pt. 2

Title: Empty Village
Year: 2008
Format: Single-Channel High-Definition Video; Stereo
Length: 42 minutes
Screening Medium: High-Definition Monitor; Video Projector

Empty Village is a postmortem portrait of La Cueva, a dead town situated upon the Andean plateau of Argentina.

In the late 1700s, La Cueva was founded on the Camino Real, the colonial trail that runs between the Río de la Plata and the Alto Perú Viceroyalties. In 1908 the Central Northern Railway was built, linking La Cueva with other posts along the line. The 1980s brought a reduction in train service, isolating La Cueva from other towns (notably Humahuaca to the south and La Quiaca to the north). A slow exodus began as a result of the limited influx of goods and services. The train stopped running entirely in 1993 and the remaining inhabitants left for other towns. Fifteen years after the last villager left, La Cueva remains relatively intact; the low humidity and high altitude help preserve the dwellings.

La Cueva’s story is by no means unique. Villages all over the planet are emptying out as people migrate to cities. It is the largest migration in human history. In 2007, the year this portrait was made, a crossover occured: the percentage of global population living in cities rose over 50%.