Artifacts and bodily acts of memory: art and life to think the fine line of the present

Abstract

A comparative analysis of artistic productions, called artifacts and bodily acts of memory, is proposed, which have in common the expression of Latin American collective traumas, from the physical and cultural genocide promoted by colonization to military dictatorships, passing through the contemporary migration crisis. One of the assumptions made is that both the archive (book literature, for example) and the repertoire (incorporated practices) constitute legitimate modes of memory transmission. Meruane's novel, Sistema nervioso (2019), Guzmán's documentary, Nostalgia de la luz (2010), poems and performances by Vicuña and Galindo, Fontes' sculpture are considered, as well the act of searching for bones in the desert by the women of Calama is incorporated to the analysis as performance. It is presented as a second assumption that these artifacts and bodily acts of memory challenge the real in a forceful way and that they contribute to elaborate collective traumas, or, to “get out of the crypt”: to untie the knots of memory and socially experience mourning.