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Kunstgeschiedenis-WAS - Lecture 10 - Teresa Margolles, Vaporization
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Lecture notes of 9 pages for the course World Art Studies at UL (College notes)
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World of Art Part II – Iden00es (lecture 6-8) of Part III AgencyLecture 10 (28/11) Teresa Margolles, Vaporización, 2001
Series of ar0st whom all deal with the body + the corpse
Fragment of Cadavers, a poem about corpses by Argen0nian Néstor Perlongher in 1987
He wrote a poem a long poem on the desaparecidos--the disappeared vic0ms of Argen0na's military
dictatorship, he does not seek the to return their presence or whereabouts to those unnamed, absent
corpses, but to restore their corporeity to them.
The historical and social background of the poem:
The infamous right-wing military junta that brought violence and oppression to Argen0na in the
1970s, a brutal regime that killed thousands of people in its determina0on to silence opposi0on.
Those who were assassinated or kidnapped by the state are now known as “los desaparecidos” (the
disappeared, the missing) and this poem can be read both as homage to these and as a reminder of
the climate of repression and fear during a dictatorship.
Storyline:
1. There are corpses/cadavers everywhere, it like a beat of a dream, a pulse throughout the poem.
2. In the beginning the poet sees corpses in common places (under a bridge, under a brush, in the
canals, etc.) à silent reminder (1st binary what can/cannot be seen)
3. Eventually the corpses are found in surrealis0c places and even seems in the imagina0on of the
poet. à then they are suddenly everyday life with people (mom doing the dishes) (1st binary what
can/cannot be seen)
4. At the end of the poem, we read “There’s no one here? The woman from Paraguay asks/ Answer:
There are no cadavers”. à The poem, finishes with a denial of the very phrase that has been repeated
again and again. (2nd binary what can/cannot be said)
Binary: verhoudingen
Explana0on:
• The cadavers are not in the normal places where we would find them normally (cemetery,
morgue, etc.)
• The poem refers to military regime in Argen0na. In a 0me in the 70’s and 80’s where a lot of
people disappeared.
• These bodies were never officially recognised as being dead or disappeared. According to the
regime nothing happened.
• Cadavers fluctuates between two binaries: what can/cannot be seen and what can/cannot be
said.
• The corpses are in between states, they do not belong to the living, but they are according to
the government not dead. (in limbo)
Q. What is the rela0onship with dead + the corpses? Where is the end between the body + the
corpse, the living + the dead?
, Anna Maria Maiolino, sDll from Y, 1974
Ex phrases – tell a work in words – telling a work so that it takes shape as you, the public, listen.
Scene/Sebng:
Depicts a screaming woman’s mouth in a dark place/room. Audio and visuals are disconnected.
Screeches are increasingly layered and sharp; unnerving to the ear of the viewer..
First a soe sound. The sound gets louder. Finally, you hear screams, and it gets louder.
In the end you hear endless names of people and colours that refer to the colour of their skin.
Q. Where are the corpses?
They’re not there. Through their names, screams and even the dark and the silences the corpses are
there.
Oscar Muñoz, Aliento (Breath), 1995
Installa0on seven metal mirrors screen-printed with grease.
Sebng
Aliento, is a series of works made of 12 circular, polished steel
mirrors. The perfectly reflec0ve surface of each mirror hides
the photographic image of a dead person. As the viewer
approaches the mirror, she/he sees her own reflected image
and as the viewer gets close enough to the mirror so that
her/his breath fogs its surface, the concealed image of a dead
person becomes visible. As long as the fogging persists, the
other’s face is visible. As soon as the viewer steps back and stops breathing on the image the face of
the dead vanishes and the viewer’s face reappears.
These men are not just any dead. As desaparecidos, the disappeared of Colombia, they are both dead
and undead. It is likely that the Colombian government paramilitaries, or guerrillas assassinated them
soon aeer their capture or that they died from torture or illness while in cap0vity. Yet the
government maintains that they never died; they just disappeared.
Q. What is the rela0onship between the living + the dead?
• Ac0on: inhale and exhale
• The viewer must exhale to see the picture of the men.
• Mirror: is s0ll, the corpses come to life because the viewer decides to exhale upon the mirror.
• The corpses disappear when the fog goes away
• Coming together à the viewer + the corpses
The materials force viewers to ini0ate the conversa0on with the piece, the ac0on—breathing—
embodies the experience of nego0ate.
But what are the viewers breathing in before the exhale on the mirror? Could it be that they are
breathing in death to give the photograph new life? Or are they breathing in the present to expose the
past?
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