The Library cordially invites the public to attend “Art and Confrontation in the Americas,” an International Symposium, September 29–October 2, 2019. As violence drives thousands from their homes in Latin America in search of safe haven from the terror, the symposium addresses the role of the artist in confronting violence and promoting civic engagement and activism.
Visiting artist Juan Manuel Echavarria will speak about his work and how it exposes the consequences of conflict “on the body and the souls of people” in his native Colombia. Members of Echevarria’s foundation Puntos de Encuentro will participate.
Echavarria’s ongoing work “Silencios” began with his discovery in an abandoned Colombian school of a blackboard with a faint sentence still legible but slowly fading—”Lo bonito es estar vivo (The beautiful thing is to be alive).” Since then, Echevarria and Fernando Grisalez have “found more than 100 schools that have been abandoned because of Colombia’s ongoing war,” and have photographed more than 200 blackboards. The project is part of Echevarria’s commitment to visualizing the invisible, rescuing memory, and trying to recompose the dismembered body of his country.
The first of over 200 blackboards photographed by Juan Manuel Echavarria and Fernando Grisalez for an ongoing work “Silencios.” The words “Lo bonito es estar vivo” (The beautiful thing is to be alive) are still faintly legible.
Event schedule:
- Sunday, September 29, 7:00 p.m., Opening and Reception, “Silencios” by Juan Manuel Echavarria, Visiting Artist, in the Graduate Hotel Ballroom, 1309 W. Main St., Charlottesville, VA 22903
- Monday and Tuesday, September 30 and October 1, 9:30 a.m., International Symposium, in the auditorium of the Harrison Institute and Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia
- September 30–October 30, 2019, Art Exhibition, “Silencios”, a photographic essay by Juan Manuel Echavarria, in Nau Hall, South Lawn Commons, University of Virginia
- Monday, September 30, 6:30 p.m., Exhibition Opening and Reception: A conversation with Juan Manuel Echavarria, Fernando Grisalez, and Gabriel Ossa, in Nau Hall, South Lawn Commons, University of Virginia
- October 2, 6:00 p.m., Community Film Screening, 19 minutes, “Bocas de Ceniza (Mouths of Ash)” (in Spanish with English subtitles). Colombian artist Fernando Grisalez leads a conversation about this Colombian film. Vinegar Hill Center, 200 W. Main St., Charlottesville, VA 22902