MERCEDES SEGADE

March 2011

During the 20th century, Argentina has had interrupted democratic systems. The last period began in 1983 with the presidency of Raúl Alfonsín, after the last civic-military coup that governed from 1976 to 1983. But democracy seems to break down in every election. Behind the democratic system, as in any political and economic system, there is power, and the citizens who exercise this power over others, seeking to perpetuate themselves in power for as long as possible through a web of networks, connections, interests, and sub-powers that also seek their own survival.

Every four years, during election years, we always ask ourselves the same question: Who are the candidates running for president, do they really represent all the citizens and do they look after their rights, what interests do they serve, what history, what illusion, what need is behind each citizen’s vote?

This photographs were taken in 2011, at the Huracán stadium during the re-election campaign of Kristina Fernández de Kirchner, who later won the election and remained president until 2015. These images are just a testimony, a small fragment of the thousands of people who showed up that day to show their support. And as I look at them, I ask myself, again and again, what interests candidates serve? and what history, what illusion, what need is behind each citizen’s vote?