Footprints Of Memory - Forced Disappearance in Mexico and worldwide

About

One morning in 2013 the sculptor Alfredo López Casanova joined a Mexico City protest march of mothers and fathers whose children were victims of enforced disappearances. Walking with them, the protesters’ feet caught his attention. In their worn-out shoes he saw not only traces of the countless steps they have taken while searching for their sons and daughters, but also a powerful symbol of their unceasing fight for truth and justice.Over time, several activists of different professional backgrounds joined “Huellas de la Memoria” and turned it into a collaborative project that became a travelling exhibition. Having visited diverse corners of Mexico and Europe, it is now on display for the first time in Berlin at the premises of the Gallery Neurotitan. In the second showroom you can see the accompanying exhibition “Wo sind sie? Kein Mensch verschwindet spurlos” (Where are they? Nobody disappears traceless), drawn up and provided by Amnesty International’s Country Coordination Group for Mexico and Central America. The material on display provides more background on the topic and describes dimensions and aspects of enforced disappearances in Mexico and as a worldwide crime. “Huellas de la Memoria” displays shoes of family members whose loved ones are victims of enforced disappearances in Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Columbia and Argentina. The exhibition thus fraternises these different Latin American nations at the same time as it unites footprints of those who have only recently taken up resistance with footprints of those that have been searching for their children and fighting impunity for years. The footprints of every pair of shoes are traces of the people who wore them: they tell us who they were searching for, where and when their relatives disappeared as well as what the searching and walking meant to them. Programm Opening Reception Greeting: Annika Hirsekorn (Haus Schwarzenberg) Dr. Mathias John (Amnesty International) talk with the artist Alfredo López Casanova moderated by Christiane Schulz (Deutsches Institut für Menschenrechte)