Segunda vez is an improvisation by actors based on the short story of the same name, written by Julio Cortázar in 1974 and published in 1977 in the collection Alguien que anda por ahí. The story is set in a waiting room where strangers exchange a few words before being summoned to an interrogation, whose rules and purpose remain obscure. Cortázar’s short story suggests that the machinery of a repressive state is working to maintain a constant sense of threat in the offices of an enigmatic administrative system. The narrative structure is repeated and shifts in an unsettling manner, ratcheting up the constant apprehension of a “second time.”

In her transposition of this parable critical of dictatorship into the present time, Dora García filmed a performance for which no script was written. She hired professional actors from Buenos Aires, and explained the situation, the general action, and their individual roles. Three improvisations were performed, each filmed by a single camera in long takes. Prompted by her exploration of relations between individuals with regard to authority, expression, and negotiation, in her work García often allows the group’s psychological dynamics to unfold on their own. This approach is evident both in the reading circle devoted to James Joyce in The Joycean Society (2013), and in the temporary community of actors in Segunda vez.

Marcella Lista, 2019

Translated by Timothy Stroud