The Case of Ayotzinapa: Art and Human Rights

Abstract

The disappearance of 43 students at the Escuela Normal Rural (Rural Teacher-Training Institute) “Raúl Isidro Burgos” of Ayotzinapa and the murders of another six individuals, on the night of 26-27 September, 2014, in Iguala, Guerrero, brought to light the appalling crisis of human rights which Mexico has been undergoing, and generated overwhelming solidarity among artists. Along the lines of Colombian lawyer Yolanda Sierra’s notion of artistic litigation, this article sets out to explicate the works Papalotes (Kites) by Francisco Toledo, Nivel de Confianza (Confidence Level) by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Retratos de lego. Caso Ayotzinapa (LEGO Portraits: the Ayotzinapa Case) by Ai Weiwei. The article will show that, elaborated from the images of the faces of the students, these works perform actions of recognition and memory that help to deal with mourning, while conceiving of different forms of social relations among Mexicans and drawing attention to the case in the global arena.