Peru: Retablos by Edilberto Jiménez

At the Biblioteca Virtual del Genocidio en Ayacucho, you can now see photographs of the amazing retablo scenes made by Edilberto Jiménez (who I previously wrote about here and here) from his book "Universos de memoria".They really are amazing depictions of the violence in the Ayacuchan region of Peru.

Follow this link to get the list of images and then click on "Detalles" to get to a large image.

Urbes Mutantes: Latin American Photography 1944-2013

A new exhibition at the International Center of Photography in New York surveys photographic movements in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela.

One of the images shows the word "Evaporados" - evaporated - pasted in huge letters on an expressway wall in Lima, Peru. As the Lens blog writes, the artist Eduardo Villanes put them there in 1995, to protest the abduction and murder of nine university students and a professor by a military death squad (this is referring to the La Cantuta case), as well as the subsequent amnesty granted to the killers by Alberto Fujimori.

The exhibition, curated by Alexis Fabry and María Wills, runs until 7 September 2014.


Tales of Many Cities (The Wall Street Journal)
Latin America’s Mutating Cities, in Photographs (Lens blog, NY Times)

Yuyanapaq visits Colombia

The Bogotá international book fair is currently going on and is featuring Peru as its invited country. As part of this, a selection of the Yuyanapaq photographic exhibition of the Peruvian truth and reconciliation commission is going on show in Bogotá. 

The exhibition is taking place at the Centro de memoria, paz y reconciliación until 22 May. So if you're in Colombia, take the opportunity!

Muestra fotografica itinerante "Yuyanapaq para recordar" (Centro de memoria)

Peru: Drawing our memory

 

The Peruvian forensic anthropology institute EPAF and Vicente Cueto have initiated a projected called "Pintemos nuestra memoria" (Drawing our Memory), in which relatives of the disappeared in Peru are given the diagrams of the human body used by forensic anthropologists in their work and encourage to draw on them. Rather than using them for their original purpose of indicating wound sites, they can become a simple, portable form of commemoration for the missing person. 

Pintemos nuestra memoria

You can hear one of the participants in the project discussing his grandfather and his drawing in this video in Spanish with English subtitles:

Argentina celebrates 30 years of democracy

On 30 October, 1983, elections were held in Argentina which heralded the return to democracy under president Raúl Alfonsín. When you consider that there were six coups d'etat between 1930 and 1976, 30 years of democracy is a real achievement. As an opinion piece in the Buenos Aires Herald comments, back then, thinking that democracy was here to stay would have seemed "rash", at least. Yet the disappeared are always a part of the commemorations as well.

Acts and rallies mark 30 years of democracy (Buenos Aires Herald)
Argentina celebrates 30 years of democracy and free elections in 1983, 16 months after defeat in Malvinas (Mercopress)

Artist Marta Minujin recently constructed a huge work called "Agora de la paz"of 25,000 books, which were given away at the end of the installation.

Art icon Minujin commemorates 30 years of democracy in Argentina (ntd.tv)

There is an exhibition in Buenos Aires of the art of León Ferrari, who died this year, and who tackled complicity with the dictatorship in series like "Nosotros no sabíamos" (We didn't know), which used newspaper clippings to give the lie to people's denials. A further exhibition of his work is also taking place in Rosario.


‘We knew nothing’ was no excuse (Buenos Aires Herald)
“Nosotros no sabíamos”, de León Ferrari (Clarín)
MUESTRA HOMENAJE A LEON FERRARI EN EL MUSEO DE LA MEMORIA DE ROSARIO (Terra)

Art Icon Minujin Commemorates 30 Years of Democracy in Argentina - See more at: http://www.ntd.tv/en/news/world/south-america/20131006/82947-art-icon-minujin-commemorates-30-years-of-democracy-in-argentina.html#sthash.2Ea0pXqW.dpuf

Art Icon Minujin Commemorates 30 Years of Democracy in Argentina - See more at: http://www.ntd.tv/en/news/world/south-america/20131006/82947-art-icon-minujin-commemorates-30-years-of-democracy-in-argentina.html#sthash.2Ea0pXqW.dpuf

Peru: Detonante: El arte peruano después de la CVR

I am almost too late with this, so if you are in Lima, hurry along this weekend - the exhibition "Detonante: El arte peruano después de la CVR" is on at the Museo Metropolitano until Sunday, and it looks really good. 

The exhibition focuses on Peruvian art responding to the country's truth commission, and is curated by Victor Vich, who has done some very interesting memory work, and Karen Bernedo, whose work I personally wasn't familiar with, but I'll be rectifying that. 

Featured artists include Rudolph Castro, Claudia Coca, Mauricio Delgado, Victor Delfín, Edilberto Jiménez, Alfredo Márquez, Jorge Miyagui, Nelly Plaza, Santiago Quintanilla, Lici Ramírez, Teodoro Ramírez, Miguel Rubio, Josefa Talovara. 

From the images on Facebook, I can see what I take to be some of Jiménez's retablos, and some of the images from Delgado's project Un dia en la memoria.
See also - El arte peruano después de la CVR (La mula, image credit)

p.s. Entry is free!

Peru: The calm before the storm

The Centro Cultural Ramón Alonso Luzzy in Cartagena (Spain) is presenting a photography exhibition of the work of Baldomero Alejos. The photos were taken in Ayacucho, Peru, up to 1976 - before the region was hit by the conflict triggered by the uprising of Sendero Luminoso.

Some of the images are beautiful family portraits of a bygone age, like the one above, while others have historic interest, like the early passport shot of Sendero founder Abimael Guzmán:

How amazing that this unremarkable-looking man in a suit would soon unleash unparallelled violence in Ayacucho.

The exhibition runs until the end of August, if anyone is in the Murcia region!

El Perú en que nació Sendero Luminoso (La aventura de la historia)

Argentina: León Ferrari has died

Argentine artist León Ferrari has died at the age of 92. His polemical works are some of the best-known art to deal with the country's dictatorship.

Here he is next to one of this best-known works, La civilización occidental y cristiana. I think we can already see why he wasn't one of the Catholic Church's favourite artists. Personally, I think his work is fantastic. Here is "Alfredo Astiz (Photo: AFP, file Grinberg) + Drawing by Leonardo da Vinci, 1489" (source).

Murió el reconocido artista León Ferrari (La Nación)
Murió León Ferrari, el artista que cuestionó a las instituciones (Clarin)
Murió León Ferrari (Pagina/12)

Argentina: Leon Ferrari

Of course, an Argentina post on 24 March to mark the country's coup anniversary and key memory-related date.

An exhibition of the work of artist Leon Ferrari opened yesterday at the Centro Cultural de la Memoria Haroldo Conti, which is on the site of the former ESMA detention centre. It contains over 500 pieces, not all of them complete, and is intended to show the "creative laboratory" of the artist, according to curator Andrés Duprat.

Ferrari is a well-known and outspoken figure in Argentina, particularly because of his clashes with the Church. One of his best-known works, La civilización occidental y cristiana ("Western-Christian Civilization"), depicts Christ crucified on a fighter plane. Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio - now Pope Francis - condemned his art as "blasphemous". In 2004, Bergoglio was involved in condemnations of an exhibition of Ferrari's which was closed amid protests, including the damaging of some works - although it was later reopened.

Ferrari had a very personal connection with the dictatorship in the country, as his son Ariel was disappeared. Leon himself lived in exile, from where he cut out clippings from newspapers reporting on deaths, disappearances and atrocities in Argentina. These records of state terrorism became part of the series Nosotro no sabiamos ("We didn't know"), which is an eloquent reply to those who pleaded ignorance of the regime's crimes.

The exhibition runs until 26 May and entrance is free. 

León Ferrari: Art, Archive, and Memory (Andrea Wain, Hemispheric Institute)
León Ferrari (official website)
Un paseo por el taller de León Ferrari (Telam)

Año 2004: el cardenal Bergoglio contra León Ferrari (Rebelion)

El laboratorio de un artista inmenso (Pagina/12)

Argentina: Mi Vida Despues

I was just writing about Proyecto 1980/2000 and I read that one of its inspirations was the work of Argentine playwright Lolas Arias. I'd never heard of her - no doubt a gross oversight on my part - but here is a clip of Mi Vida Despues in which the young characters discuss their parents and their involvement in the dictatorship (with English subtitles).

Peru: Proyecto 1980/2000

Proyecto 1980/2000 is a theatre project dealing with the period of Peru's internal conflict. Directed by Sebastián Rubio and Claudia Tangoa, the piece uses various media including photos, video and music to discuss the era.

It tells the stories of five people growing up during this time: Sebastián Kouri, the son of Alberto Kouri (a former congressman implicated in the "Vladivideos" scandal); Manolo Jaime, the son of Matilde Pinchi (also connected to Vladimiro Montesinos); Carolina Huamán Oyague, the cousin of a victim of the massacre of La Cantuta; Amanda Hume, the daughter of the journalist Gilberto Hume and Lettor Acosta, the son of a military man who participated in the "dirty war" which took place in the interior of the country.

According to Rubio, "Proyecto 1980/2000 tries to form a bridge between the spectator and a history in which the country is fragmented, polarized by the (internal) conflict and corruption".


La Republica writes that the piece brings together different points of view on the internal conflict and the Fujimori era, making it an exercise of memory for people who are too young to actually, personally, remember some of it. It sounds fascinating and it's certainly unusual to unite the divergent viewpoints in this way.



De 1980 al 2000: un catártico paseo por la historia del Perú (La Republica)
Voces de la memoria: Proyecto 1980/2000. El tiempo que heredé (El teatro sabe, La mula)

See also the Facebook page and this Youtube video for more:

Thanks to José Ragas for drawing my attention to this.

Peru/US: Oscar Medrano exhibition

An exhibition of the work of Peruvian photojournalist Oscar Medrano has just opened in New York.

Medrano is a longstanding photographer for Caretas magazine and took one of the best-known pictures of the Peruvian conflict, which I wrote about here.

In this exhibit the author shows some pictures of wives, mothers and daughters who suffered the loss of their loved ones, as well as orphaned children, members of self-defense committees (ronderos) that emerged during the years of political violence. The author went to places almost inaccessible in Peru after the terrorist attacks such as the towns of Lucanamarca and Huaychau. The image of the wounded face of Edmundo Camana Sumari, one of the seven survivors of the slaughter of Lucanamarca became famous for his photo with a bandaged head covering his eye. 

 His work can be seen at the Instituto Cervantes, but only until 31 July, for those who are in NYC.

Thanks to Perufoto for drawing my attention to this.

Argentina: Exhibition Sacco/Brodsky

An exhibition of the work of Graciela Sacco and Marcelo Brodsky, "Entre Aguas", is currently taking place in the Rolf Art Showroom in Recoleta, Buenos Aires. Entry is free and the show runs until 27 July.

Argentina: Weapon of mass instruction

This memory/art project has been written about quite a lot, but I hadn't read about it until today, and I just think it's so great:

Raúl Lemesoff has modified a Ford Falcon, which, as I've mentioned before, is an icon of repression in Argentina. And just look at it!


It's been converted into a tank shape and absolutely covered with books, hence the name, "Weapon of Mass Instruction" (Arma De Instruccion Masiva). The books are all donations and are given away to anyone who wants them. What a quirky, positive idea!



Thanks to Richard Grabman of The Mex Files for drawing my attention to this initative on his Facebook page.

Argentina round-up

March is always the month of memory in Argentina, with the anniversary of the attack on the Israeli embassy on the 17th and the coup anniversary on the 24th. This year, with the 30th anniversary of the invasion of the Falklands/Malvinas coming up, the commemorative trend is particularly obvious and continuing into April.

Here's a selection of articles of interest from this week:

- On Monday, the memory commission of the province of Buenos Aires submitted an appeal to the Argentine supreme court requesting that the mistreatment of recuits during the Malvinas conflict amounted to crimes against humanity:
Piden a la Corte que se defina por las torturas en Malvinas (La Nacion)
Legal actions against Argentine officers who tortured conscripts during Malvinas war (Mercopress)

Not everyone in Argentina is convinced that the country has a right to the Falkland Islands. The BBC gives space to historian Luis Alberto Romero, who says,

"I'm not really bothered about the claim over the Malvinas. [...] What does worry me is the rise of a nationalistic feeling that can cause traumas in our society," he says, referring to public support for the country's military regime when it decided to invade the South Atlantic islands in 1982.

I'd agree with that.
Falkland Islands: Argentina's dissenters (BBC)

Oh, and incidentally, if you're a bit hazy about the exact dates of all the Falklands stuff, the BBC has sorted that with a handy timeline:
The Falklands War: Key dates (BBC)

And definitely check out The Atlantic's amazing images from the war:
30 Years Since the Falklands War (The Atlantic)
- One of the major human rights trials, dealing with the abduction of babies during the dictatorship, is drawing to a close. IPS particularly looks at the story of found grandchild Francisco Madariaga. However, on a broader front, "the aim of this trial is also to show that there was a systematic plan to steal children", according to Grandmothers' lawyer Alan Iud.
Argentine Baby Theft Trial Nears End (IPS)

The Grandmothers want a 50-year jail term for former dictator Jorge Videla for his role at the top architect of the baby stealing.
“La Justicia consolidará la democracia y el Nunca Más” (Pagina/12)

- This week also saw 35 years since the death of writer Rodolfo Walsh, murdered by the regime in 1977. A monument to him by artist Leon Ferrari was unveiled at the former ESMA site. Walsh is best known for his "Open letter from a writer to the Military Junta" and the entire text of it is reproduced on the 14 glass panels of the memorial.

Carta abierta por la memoria de Walsh (Pagina/12)
“Se quedó acá y lo mataron” (Pagina/12 - an interview with Ferrari)

A map of Latin American dreams

I recently discovered the work of Martín Weber (thanks to Peru Foto). His photographs in "A map of Latin American dreams" are just beautiful, and several of them are relevant to this blog. Here is just one of them:
See more here.

Peru: Un dia en la memoria

I'm always retweeting the images of Un dia en la memoria and now, thanks to Roberto Bustamente of blog El morsa, we can see a discussion of the project from its creator, Mauricio Delgado (in Spanish):

Colombia: Impunity

A trailer for the film Impunity (Juan Jose Lozano and Hollman Morris).



Thanks to Narco News for drawing my attention to this.

Argentina: Exhibition

Artists Rosana Fuertes and Daniel Ontiveros have their first joint exhibition in Buenos Aires, running until 31 March - and you can probably see why I've chose to highlight this on the blog. An even more impressive photo can be seen here.

Luchar, amar, trabajar (Pagina/12)

HRW Film Festival, London 23 March - 1 April

If you're in the London area around the end of March, you may be interested in the Human Rights Watch Film Festival. Latin American related films are:

Familia (2010, dir. Mikael Wiström and Alberto Herskovits, focusing on Peru/Spain)

Granito (2011, dir. Pamela Yates, focusing on Guatemala)

Impunity (2010, dir. Juan José Lozano and Hollman Morris, focusing on Colombia)

When the Mountains Tremble (1983, dir. Pamela Yates, focusing on Guatemala)