Trazos Humanos/Human Traces

About

Inspired by the 25th Anniversary of the University's Human Rights Centre, Trazos humanos explores the engagement of contemporary artists in Latin American with ‘the basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled' (Article 1 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights). These rights and freedoms are not just civil and political but include freedom of expression and the right to participate in culture. Translated from the Spanish here as ‘traces,' trazos can also mean drawings, marks, characteristics or the features of a human face. The works in Trazos humanos are taken largely from the University of Essex Collection of Latin American Art (UECLAA). Some focus on human beings and the marks they make in order to recapture a sense of the individual and of humanity in often dehumanising circumstances. Others avoid references to specific people or events, thereby revealing the need and the right for artists to make art in areas or moments of intense political or economic pressure. This exhibition includes work by Oscar Munoz, Siron Franco, Wilson Diaz, Jac Leirner and Cildo Meireles.