Art / political art
International art exhibition on human disappearance at Centrespace Studios & Gallery
Chantal Meza is a Mexican abstract painter based in Bristol, whose work highlights the international problem of human disappearance.
From October 27, Meza will be exhibiting State of Disappearance, a series of 75 original works at Centrespace Studios & Gallery. Alongside it, there is a programme of free talks and panel discussions from internationally renowned authorities on subjects ranging from enforced disappearance to the Holocaust, slavery, human trafficking, and the difficulties of finding missing people in natural disasters.
Begun in 2017, the initiative is co-directed by Brad Evans, professor of political violence and aesthetics at the University of Bath, director of the Centre for the Study of Violence, and founder and director of the Histories of Violence project.
is needed now More than ever
Chantal Meza – photo: Karl Baker
Prof Brad Evans – photo: Hannah Mason
“Disappearance is marked by a devastating absence,” they say. “It constitutes a form of violence that rips open a wound in time. It offers no viable recovery and no meaningful justice.
“It provisions alibis to perpetrators, while denying the victims their very humanity. And for those who are left to live with its presence, the terror is unending.”
Although disappearance is unquestionably a problem going back many centuries, it is especially pertinent today. In Meza’s native Mexico, as a direct impact of the drugs trade, 100,000 people have been victims of enforced disappearance since the 1960s – 80 per cent of those since 2006.
Chantal Meza, Obscure Beasts I (2018) – photo: courtesy of the artist
Chantal Meza, Obscure Beasts IX (2018) – photo: courtesy of the artist
These and countless other examples are included on a fact sheet accompanying the project, covering not only human disappearance, but also the decline in land and freshwater habitats and animal populations around the world.
The artworks included in the inaugural exhibition are divided into different series, including ‘Obscure Beasts’, ‘Apparitions’, The Void’, and ‘Collapse of Consciousness’.
“If art is to deal with the question of violence,” reflects Meza, “then it must confront the kidnappings, femicides, repressions, clandestine graves, enforced disappearances, the murders of journalists, extrajudicial executions, as well as the indifference to such horrifying crimes.”
State of Disappearance is at Centrespace Studios & Gallery from October 27-November 8, at 10am-8pm daily (10am-5pm Sundays).
A programme of online and in person talks and panel discussions will accompany the exhibition; all of which are free to attend. For more information, visit www.historiesofviolence.com/exhibition.
Main photo: Chantal Meza
Read more: Exhibitions from Bristol Photo Festival’s ‘Dreamlines’ project to be staged across the city
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