Presentación dada en la Universidad de Minnesota, Nov. 1, 2010

1. Guillermina Walas
Independent Scholar
National Coalition of Independent Scholars

2. “Utopia is, in one respect, the unacceptable, a
no-place, the extreme point of a
reconfiguration of the sensible, which breaks
down the categories that define what is
considered to be obvious. However, it is also
the configuration of a proper place, a non-
polemical distribution of the sensible universe
where what one sees, what one says, and what
one makes or does are rigorously adapted to
one another.”
(Rancière, The Politics of Aesthetics 40)

3. “Works of testimonial genre, in their variety and
because of their diverse stylistic paths, make evident,
among other common truths, the genre‟s vocation as
a revealing mechanism of history (…)
Testimony affects, because of its immediacy and the
consciousness of its functionality, the reality from
which it departs.”
(Casaus, Defensa del testimonio 46-7,
my translation)

4. V.
The true picture of the past flits by. The past
can be seized only as an image which flashes
up at the instant when it can be recognized
and is never seen again (…). For every image
of the past that it is not recognized by the
present as one of its own concerns threatens
to disappear irretrievably (…)
VI.
To articulate the past historically does not
mean to recognize it “ the way it really was”
(Ranke). It means to seize hold of a memory
as it flashes up at a moment of danger…
(Benjamin, Theses on the Philosophy of
History” Illuminations 255)

5. „The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the “state of emergency” in which we
live is not the exception but the rule. We must attain to a conception of history that is in
keeping with this insight. Then we shall clearly realize that it is our task to bring about a
real state of emergency, and this will improve our position in the struggle against
Fascism.‟ (Benjamin, “Thesis VIII on the Philosophy of History” Illuminations 257)
Art and Memory Museum, stencil on the outside wall.

7. Universal Declaration of Human Rights
…Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last
resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be
protected by the rule of law…
Article 1.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with
reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Article 3.
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
Article 8.
Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for
acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.
Article 9.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml#a1

8. Mural de la Noche de los Lápices/ The Night of the Pencils Mural
Calle 8 e/diagonal 78 y 61, Escuela de Bellas Artes de la UNLP

10. Comisión Provincial por la Memoria- DIPBA, former Police Dept.
of Intelligence for Buenos Aires province.

11. DIPBA: ARCHIVOS/
ARCHIVES

13. Original furniture and other objects of DIPBA (Dept. of Intelligence)
On the floor, a quote: “An unnecessary strike or politically coordinated, aborted
while being planned because of its discovery by this agency and the subsequent
alert to the authorities, would justify the existence of our service” (Central of
Intelligence, 1957)

14. “

15. La calle y el reclamo por López/ López in the streets

18. XIV.
History is the subject of a structure whose site is not homogeneous,
empty time, but time filled by the presence of the now [jetztzeit]…
(Benjamin, “Theses..” Illuminations 261)
One of many stencils about
López on the streets of La

19. Pasaje Dardo Rocha: Semana del Teatro 2010
“Julio López: Should be found alive”

20. Universidad Nac. de La Plata, Edificio de Humanidades/National
University of La Plata, Humanities Building from the street
4
TO WHAT
YEARS
CAN YOU
WITHOUT
LÓPEZ
GET USED TO?

21. Mural de C.I.L.S.A ONG (Centro de Integración Libre y Solidario) en Ave. 53 entre
calles 16 y 17 / C.I.L.S.A (a non-governmental organization “for the integration of all”)
Mural on 53rd Ave, between 16th and 17th St.
“We are closer to the country that looks for inclusion”

23. Mural sobre Fuentealba/ about Fuentealba (diagonal 78 e/9 y10)
“Las tizas no se manchan con sangre”/ “Chalk should not be stained
with blood”: Mural about the death of the teacher Carlos Fuentealba while at a
peaceful protest in Neuquén, April 2007. The mural also refers to other murdered
teachers, such as Francisco Isauro Arancibia, one of the founders of
CTERA(Confederación de Trabajadores de la Educación de la República Argentina)
shoot down in March 1976, right after the military coup. The word “Diente”/
“Tooth” might be an irreverent inscription over the mural.

24. Femicidio/ Denouncing Feminicide
Denouncing the murder of Sandra Ayala
Gamboa at ARBA (state taxes agency) and at
the abandoned building next door, where she
was last seen, 7 Ave. & 46th St

25. Otros murales y pintadas de protesta: “Ningún muro tapa el
hambre”/ Other murals claiming social justice: “No wall can
cover hunger”
Paroding the American Express add: “One package of Terrabusi
crackers= 3.99, recovering the factory, PRICELESS”

26. Centro Cultural Islas Malvinas, 51 y 19/ Islas
Malvinas Cultural Center
Top: entrance to the center. Left:
sculpture in the central patio by the
group “Escombros” (“Rubble” ), with
a poem by Lydia Burry that talks about
the need for remembrance.

27. “La pared de la memoria”/ “The Wall of
t
Memory”
Mosaics with photographs of the “This mural attempts to be a caress
disappeared on the “wall of memory”, to the soul for the mothers, the
internal patio of the Center, simulates a
grandmothers and the children, for
window that has been covered to make
as if it was not there, but the plaster fell,
those who remember and for this
unveiling the layers of history. society that should awake…”.

28. Muestra itinerante en el Banco de la Provincia de Buenos Aires,
sede centro/ Itinerant exhibition about disappeared bank
employees at the Banco de la Prov.
Bs.As.,
downtown La Plata, April 2010

29. “La casa de los conejos”/ “The House of the Rabbits”
(Calle 30 entre 55 y 56)

31. Pictures taken in April 2010
before the re-opening of the
house
Actual space, in between two walls (therefore
the name, “embute”), where the clandestine
imprint used to operate. On the back, the
opening mechanism. Right: the opposite wall
where, before the remodeling for the museum
project, there was a description of the place
that had been “damaged” by graffiti.

32. Patio and entrance to clandestine print
(embute) with a sophisticated access
mechanism.

36. The House is an attempt
to reproduce how
everything looked on the
aftermath of the attack.
Here, the bombed car in the
garage

37. “Calle Tomada” Murals (Corner Calle 9 & 53) Feb. 2009-May
2010

38. 28 Oct. 2010, 9 y 53
The murals of “Calle Tomada/ 9 & 52” are almost destroyed, but still the
claim remains: “Let‟s move to find López”

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