Territory Under Siege: Spectral Realism in Fragmentos by Doris Salcedo

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Published: May 1, 2020
Updated: 2020-05-01
Keywords:
Doris Salcedo, Colombia, Violence, Spectral Realism, Colombia Art

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Juliana Martínez
American University

Abstract

Analyzing Fragmentos (Doris Salcedo, 2018) encourages a reflection about how art can create spaces that disrupt the deadly dynamics of what Philippe Bourgois calls the continuum of violence in war and peace. In Fragmentos, this is achieved through the deployment of formal components associated with what I call spectral realism. That is to say, works that understand the return of those who have borne the brunt of the violence of the armed conflict, not as one of many possible subjects of the artistic endeavor, but as a disruptive force that questions and transforms it.

Article Details

Issue
Vol. 55 (2020): Narrative, Visual Arts and Film in Light of the Peace Accords in Colombia
Section
Articles
Author Biography

Juliana Martínez, American University

She is Assistant Professor at the Department of World Languages and Cultures at American University, Wahsington, D.C, where she is also part of the advisory board of the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program, and a researcher at the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies (CLALS). She focuses on the intersection of violence and body politics in Latin America. Her two main areas of research are: representation of historical violence in recent cultural production; and gender and sexuality—particularly trans— studies.