Abstract

CARDONA GONZALEZ, Lorena. Silencios. Visual memory of the Holocaust in Colombia. Rev. colomb. soc. [online]. 2017, vol.40, n.1, pp.133-160. ISSN 0120-159X.  https://doi.org/10.15446/rcs.v40n1.61956.

This article analyzes memory using visual and photographic resources. As a broad recollection device, the image functions as a convener and unifying element of time, i.e., it incorporates the past and present vividly. However, the image as certifier of experience also treats de-structuring and painful events which changed the ways to approach and learn history.

In this regard, this article looks at the photographic work of the Colombian artist Erika Diettes, who through photography attempts to capture the faces and memories of thirty Jewish survivors who on their arrival in Colombia sought to rebuild their lives and make for themselves a new space in the country. Her work Silences (2006), through the image, aims to bring the topics of the Holocaust and migration to the eyes of Colombians as well as explore the silence that these immigrants had regarding their history, which shows itself as a space for enunciation that opens through the image, objects and words. To achieve these objectives two elements are taken as axes: the first, related to the process of construction of the work, in interviews with photographer, with a discussion of the vi sual complexity to produce an image in a context of pain; the second, taking into account the work of Michael Pollak, focuses on how memory becomes an essential component of identity, and although this is traumatic, their times, enunciations and hearings suffer post ponements, suppression and concealments. These components enable a regard toward the memory of the Holocaust in Colombia.

Keywords : Colombia; Holocaust; identity; memory; silence; survivors..

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