Embodying Absence: Remembering Mexico’s Missing Persons through Art

Sabrina Melenotte (1)

1 URMIS - Unite de recherche migrations et sociétés

From ethnographic observations and analyses of artworks (Memorial to the Victims in Mexico, the Absence Monument, a Day of the Dead, two anti-monuments, the collective project Footprints of Memory), this article offers a critical reflection in artistic engagement with the subject of memory and mass disappearances in Mexico. Unlike official memories, artistic expressions emerging from civil society offer an alternative and collective memory art which redefines protest art and gives a new role to artists, who are engaged in a political and ethical approach that is close to the victims and resonates like an outcry abroad Mexico.

Mots clés: Art & society; Memory Conflicts; Memory Contention; Mexico - Mexico City; Disappearance; Enforced disappearance; Ayotzinapa; Memorials; antimonument

Domaines: Anthropologie sociale et ethnologie; Art et histoire de l'art

Sabrina Melenotte. Embodying Absence: Remembering Mexico’s Missing Persons through Art. Pénélope Larzillière. The Global Politics of Artistic Engagement. Beyond the Arab Uprisings, 19, Brill, pp.311-340, 2023, Series: Youth in a Globalizing World, 9789004518452. ⟨10.1163/9789004518452_013⟩. ⟨hal-03827980⟩