This phrase in neon lights was produced as part of Los durmientes, el exilio imaginado, (The Sleepers, the Imagined Exile) the first anthological exhibition of artist Enrique Ramirez (Santiago de Chile, 1979) in his country, held at the Museum of Memory and Human Rights (Santiago, 2015). The common thread of the show was the video on three channels The Sleepers (2014), where the author elaborates, from a deeply poetic dimension, an approach to the memory of the atrocious use of the sea as the cemetery for some of those politically disappeared during the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet . Between 1973 and 1978, 500 bodies were thrown into the sea from helicopters: an episode that the artist has also addressed in works such as Brisas (Breezes), from 2008.
Las personas son de los lugares y llevan su tierra junto a ellas (People Are from Places and Take Their Earth Along with Them) is part of a corpus of work in which, through audiovisual, photography, and installation, the artist alludes to Chilean political memory, taking as a starting point relations with the territory and its observation. In this sentence, Ramirez appeals to the affective dimensions of exodus, exile, and displacement, political consequences of enormous violence also motivated by the dictatorship.
“For me it is a phrase that makes us understand that wherever we go, we will carry history with us; wherever we are, we will feel the land where we come from thousands of kilometers away. Where we come from is where we are from, even if they are long roots that must cross the world," the artist explained about the meaning of this work, in whose production the role of travel, human mobility, and their plastic images are a constant. For example, in works such as Cruzar un muro (Crossing a Wall) (2012), a video about contemporary migratory policies.
“Enrique Ramírez's work is balsamic, suggestive, without ceasing to provoke that dose of necessary discomfort, perplexity, which puts in check the common places, the certainties, and even the prejudices that prevail over the artistic productions they allude to the recent past,” wrote Argentinian curator Florencia Battiti on the occasion of the exhibition of Los durmientes, El exilio imaginado.
References:
Catálogo de exposición Enrique Ramírez. Los durmientes, Embajada de Chile en Argentina- Centro Cultural Matta – Michel Rein, Ediciones Metales Pesados, 2018.
https://artishockrevista.com/2014/11/13/enrique-ramirez-entrevista/
https://museoamparo.noticiases.info/cultura/obra-navega-ancho-mar-memoria_0_E1UYs65Tg.html
https://revistacodigo.com/arte/encuentros-latinoamericanos-no-1-entrevista-con-enrique-ramirez/
Exposiciones del Museo Amparo:
/exposiciones/piezas/46/enrique-ramirez-el-tiempo-el-animo-el-mundo
This phrase in neon lights was produced as part of Los durmientes, el exilio imaginado, (The Sleepers, the Imagined Exile) the first anthological exhibition of artist Enrique Ramirez (Santiago de Chile, 1979) in his country, held at the Museum of Memory and Human Rights (Santiago, 2015). The common thread of the show was the video on three channels The Sleepers (2014), where the author elaborates, from a deeply poetic dimension, an approach to the memory of the atrocious use of the sea as the cemetery for some of those politically disappeared during the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet . Between 1973 and 1978, 500 bodies were thrown into the sea from helicopters: an episode that the artist has also addressed in works such as Brisas (Breezes), from 2008.
