María Verónica San Martín

The-Right-To-Know

María Verónica San Martín

The-Right-To-Know

Date

2016

Edition Size

unique

Media

Charcoal, Silkscreen

Paper

Plastic sheets

Binding

Loose pages

Format

Artist Book

Dimensions

20 × 30 × 2.2 in

Enclosure

Cardboard, Handkerchief

Collection

$ 14,000.00

Unavailable


The-right-to-know” is an artist book of an installation of the same name that refers to the military dictatorship that took place in Chile between 1973 and 1990, in which the US government of that time had direct participation. The work is based on information taken from the declassified documents provided by the National Security Archive within its Chile Project, which began in the late 1990s following the detention of dictator Pinochet in London accused of crimes against humanity. The identities of the disappeared detainees fill the Omi International Art Center’s studio floor, creating a mapping of Chilean portraits and blank spaces. The portraits are the “memory available” (i.e) persecuted people that relatives and reports have managed to share so far in alphabetical order. The book, made of shipping cardboard saves the complete installation wrapped in written handkerchiefs to be reinstalled as many times as needed, with the flexibility to be shared in public spaces, as a memorial, as an invitation to reflect on the political history of a country which still cannot exercise its right to know.

Medium: Charcoal paintings on plastic sheets, silkscreen
Binding: Loose pages + handkerchief