VESTIGES

In the context of the commemoration of the 50 years of the civic-military coup in Chile, Centro Cultural La Moneda, Universidad Diego Portales and the Australian studio Distil Immersive invite you to discover Vestigios, an immersive video installation that presents stories of pain and resilience of six relatives of adolescents under 18 years of age, victims of forced disappearance during the dictatorship. A project that seeks to interpellate new generations and open channels for public reflection on democracy.

Displayed in a large-scale projection, six female relatives of young missing detainees wait for visitors to interact with them. The women, sitting in chairs one next to the other, interact with the public of this exhibition relating to each other. Their names are: Franchesca Álvarez Miranda, niece of Óscar Hernán Enrique Miranda Segovia, detained at the age of 17 in Melipilla; Ana María González Albornoz, sister of Ignacio Santander Albornoz, arrested at age 16 in Paine; Ana María Carreño Aguilera, sister of Iván Sergio Carreño Aguilera, detained at age 15 in Conchalí; Viviana González Traslaviña, niece of Marco Antonio Martínez Traslaviña, detained at the age of 15 in Santiago Centro; Evita Aguayo Olavarría, sister of Héctor Domingo Aguayo Olavarría, detained at age 17 near Pucón; and Claudia Ascencio González, niece of Juan Luis Ascencio Solís, arrested at age 17 in Osorno.

This project is based on a journalistic and archival research developed by Universidad Diego Portales, which addresses the forced disappearance of minors during the Chilean military dictatorship. During the investigation, the Ministerio de Justicia, Ministerio de las Culturas, las Artes y el patrimonio, Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos and Fundación Archivo de la Vicaría de la Solidaridad have participated in this project. In addition, interviews were conducted with human rights activists and organizations, lawyers specialized in the subject, relatives of missing detainees and academics specialized in memory topics and transitional justice. On the other hand, exhaustive ethnographic work has been carried out that has involved visits to the families of the adolescents in different regions of Chile to interview them and, thus, get to know their testimonies in depth.