Ivan Navarro, during his youth, experienced his dictatorial government’s control over electricity and movement in public space. Based on such personal memories, he has produced works that focus particularly on lights, using neon, mirrors, glass, and florescent lights. Resistance is a video of someone riding a bicycle— made from a shopping cart and florescent lights—across Times Square in New York City, full of neon billboards. The video accompanies the real bike driven in the film. The “electric chair” mounted to the bicycle frame generates electric energy, which contrasts with the grandiose shining advertising screens in the night city. This video was mainly inspired by the life experiences of immigrants who often deliver goods by bicycle. The hard labor of pedaling and the lights generated by that force represent the daily tensions and uncomfortable situations of the immigrants, while also alluding to the urban structures that have become the only way for them to make a living.
