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)

Chile: 40 years on

This week marks the 40th anniversary of the September 11 coup in Chile and there has been a predictable flurry of memory-related stories.

Amnesty International UK is hosting an updated version of photojournalist Julio Etchart's 1988 exhibition Chile's 9/11 at the Human Rights Action Centre in Shoreditch, London, on weekdays from 9-20 September (you can see some of the images here).

Hugh O'Shaughnessy recalls witnessing the coup as a journalist in Santiago.

Joyce Horman, whose husband was killed by the military regime and became the subject of the well-known film Missing, continues to fight for justice for the disappeared. An event celebrating the judges, lawyers and human rights activists who led efforts to illuminate this dark period of history will be held at the Charles Horman Truth Foundation in New York on Monday.

Meanwhile, the family of Victor Jara has filed suit in Florida under federal laws allowing legal action against human rights violators living in the United States. The former officer accused of his murder, Pedro Pablo Barrientos, moved to the United States in 1989 and became an American citizen.

Chilean judges have made an unprecedented apology for their profession's involvement in the regime. Chilean courts rejected about 5,000 cases seeking help on locating missing loved ones abducted or killed by the authorities.

Chilean president Sebastian Pinera called for those with information about the disappeared to come forward.

Reuters and AFP also consider the legacy of the dictatorship as the anniversary approaches.  The BBC features the work of muralists who defied the regime.

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.

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)

Peru Event: Arte por la memoria

Lat Am Events in the UK

The Peru Support Group is holding its annual conference in Oxford next week. See flyer here (pdf).

The London Latin American Film Festival is also currently underway - apologies for late notice. There looks to be many excellent films being shown. Of interest to this blog would be the documentaries Victims of Democracy (dir. Stella Jacobs), The Loss/La Perdida (dir. Javier Angulo & Enrique Gabriel) and Our Disappeared (dir. Juan Mandelbaum).

US/Peru Events

An event, and a related exhibition, which may be of interest to New York-based readers - apologies for the short notice. The symposium has some truly excellent speakers, including Kimberly Theidon, Mary Louise Pratt and Diana Taylor, so I would highly recommend it for anyone who is able to attend. More info here.

Peru Event

Peru Event

London: Latin American Events

Another friend passed on the news that Argentina's Christina Kirchner will be speaking at the London School of Economics on 3 April. London readers can see here for ticket information (the event is free but you need a ticket). However if you can't make it - as I can't - it should also be made available as a podcast shortly afterwards.

Aside from that, all you lefty human rights types (AKA 'terrorists' in certain quarters) in Britain's capital will want to be making your way to the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival from 18-27 March. See here. Again, I won't make it, but this is where I saw the wonderful State of Fear for the first time, and I note that filmmakers Pamela Yates, Paco de Onis and Peter Kinoy are showing another documentary, this time about the International Criminal Court.