Conflicts, Post Conflicts and Peoples’ Memory

 

 

In the Third and final part of the series on Conflicts, Post- Conflicts and Peoples’ Memory: A panel discussion in three parts, the focus shifts to contemporary pieces of artistic expression that strive towards reflection on the memory of the past. Focusing on three other powerful visual mediums of subversion, remembrance and commemoration – documentaries, graffiti and murals – with a focus on Latin American history. During the 1970s and 80s, Latin Americans have had to face, suffer and resist some of the most brutal dictatorships; dictatorships that unleashed widespread repression, torture and killings. In an attempt to communicate, and remember people began to use city walls and buildings to vent out their feelings of angst, as a way of protest against political oppression. From this grew a history of graffiti and murals – forms of street art and cultural expression – that enjoy currency till date. The panel will share some examples of graffiti from Argentina and murals from Chile in an attempt to show how the pieces not only celebrate the revolutionary period of the 1970s and 80s but also convert them into tools of subversion used by contemporary artists to negotiate with present day politics.