The exhibition Operação Condor, on display at the Paço das Artes de São Paulo through December 7th, offers viewers a look into the dark days of Latin American dictatorship. Rather than rely on images from the past, however, Portuguese photographer João Pina uses images from the present to revisit the assassinations carried out in the 1970s by the secret services of six South American countries.
In 1975, military dictatorships in Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay decided to join forces to hunt down and kill political dissidents. They called it Operation Condor. “By sharing informations, resources, torture techniques and political prisoners, these countries intended to eradicate opposition, which they deemed a communist threat,” says Pina.
Between 2005 and 2013, the photographer spent 25 weeks among Brazilians and South Americans who were victims of the campaign. “The series Operação Condor goes beyond documentary photography,” says exhibition curator Diógenes Moura. “The photographs speak of absence, irreparable loss, and the search for the still unexplained missing… More than an exhibition, it’s a document of the scars left behind.”
Pina shared in the memory of these survivors by visiting the places where they were held and tortured. The photographer bears witness to the ways in which victims and their families cope with the trauma suffered during this period, which has transformed the lives of many generations. “Even today,” says Pina,” from the Amazon forest to the frozen lands of Patagonia, thousands of bodies remain buried in unmarked graves. The photographs are part of a project that attempts to pay tribute to all the victims of the dictatorships that ruled the region with an iron fist.”
EXHIBITION
Operação Condor, de João Pina
September 23 – December 7, 2014
Paço das Artes
Avenida da Universidade, 1
Cidade Universitária
São Paulo, Brasil
