SOUVENIR
2019
Installation
Photography and 24 ceramics
Selling souvenirs alluding to war is an absurd act. Asking people to answer a question so that they have the opportunity to buy such souvenirs is even more absurd. My intention was to provoke the interaction of people, whether negative or positive, and to parody of the desire of some to consume or buy these issues. The question that the people who attended the exhibition had to answer was this: Why are you interested in "The Phantom of the Postwar"and why do you want to buy a war souvenir? I received 119 replies from which I had to choose only 24; the responses selected meant the opportunity to later buy a
"post-war ghost" ceramic for 200 quetzals which is approximately the value of a souvenir in Guatemala's central market.
There were no "correct" answers. I chose the ones that I found most coherent, honest, creative or strange, and when I read them I realized that there are several ways to perceive our story: through the people who are attracted to having a memory of the war because of their personal relationship with it, the people who were outraged by an artist making a war souvenir, there were also the people who openly support the army; and even children who want to have a military career.
What really surprised me is the limited access that seems to be
available of literature on this historical topic, which is clearly
reflected in these responses: an obvious ignorance of the subject (including myself). We barely know what really happened. In Guatemala, there is no free dissemination on issues relating to the internal armed conflict as a socio-political phenomenon, which is taught in schools and is still very much lacking and frivolous, when it actually exists.
