Angels of memory: photography and haunting in Guatemala City |
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Authors: | Steven Hoelscher |
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Institution: | (1) Departments of American Studies and Geography, University of Texas at Austin, 430 Burdine Hall, Austin, TX 78712, USA |
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Abstract: | This article explores the relationship between historical memory, urban space, and photography by way of a case study: the
place-specific public art of the Guatemalan photographer and human rights activist, Daniel Hernández-Salazar. As one of a
growing number of Latin American artists committed to combating the “institutionalized forgetfulness” of human rights violations
throughout the hemisphere, Hernández-Salazar deploys geographically-rich photographic installations to help his society remember
its difficult past. The installations, known as Street Angel, are like ghosts haunting the graves of the murdered, fortresses of the powerful, bastions of the complicit. By shedding
light on these ghostly angels, this article reveals the important role of photography, as a crucial vehicle of memory, in
bearing witness to the unimaginable horrors that consumed much of the twentieth century, as well as that technology’s limitations.
It also shows how remembrances of those atrocities depend on urban space for their grounding, articulation, and maintenance.
Finally, by probing the artistic impulse and political sensibility that created Guatemala City’s angels of memory, it makes
the case that, in the combustible political climate of post-war Central America, the work of remembering the past is not an
antiquarian exercise: the labor of memory is a fundamental component of building a just society.
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Keywords: | Memory Public art Urban space Photography Human rights Guatemala |
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