On the Art of the Disappeared

ON THE ART OF THE DISAPPEARED

From The Believer, March 2007, Weschler’s account of a traveling exhibition in which twenty-seven latin american artists began the labor of reclaiming the cultural and historical remains of the twentieth century’s campaigns of repression. Read the article. (opens in new tab)

Above: Argentinean artist Nicolas Guagnini (b.1966) calls his array of mysteriously black-streaked vertical white vinyl posts 30,000, an obvious allusion to the 30,000 citizens the Argentinean military arranged to be made to disappear following their 1976 coup, a number which included his own father, a journalist kidnapped the following year, never to be seen again, except now, in occasional glimpses, as the spectator circumnavigates the son’s array, and suddenly, the father’s face snaps into startling focus.