THE DISAPPEARED
CCCB – From 1 February to 1 May 2011
Press conference: Tuesday 1 February at 12 midday
The exhibition by photojournalist Gervasio Sánchez, presented simultaneously in
Barcelona, Madrid and León, is an extensive documentary photography project
about forced disappearance in ten countries in Latin America, Asia and Europe.
The Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, La Casa Encendida de Obra Social Caja
Madrid and the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León simultaneously present
the exhibition “The Disappeared”, curated by photojournalist Sandra Balsells. This
photographic show by photojournalist Gervasio Sánchez addresses the theme of forced
disappearance in Chile, Argentina, Peru, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Iraq,
Cambodia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Spain between 1998 and 2010.
“The Disappeared” represents a forceful document against forgetting and aims to salvage the
suppressed memory of people disappeared during various wars and processes of repression. The
presentation of the exhibition forms part of a major cultural action which, for the first time on
the Spanish expository scene, involves the simultaneous exhibition in three cities (León,
Barcelona and Madrid) of a macro photographic project centring on a single theme, by the same
author.
Each centre will show a broad but completely different selection of photographs, making it a
truly new expository proposal (MUSAC: 79 photographs and installation of portraits, "Cruelty
and Pain", the joint work of Gervasio Sánchez and Ricardo Calero; La Casa Encendida: 73
photographs and 4 murals with 40 portraits; CCCB: 103 photographs and 4 murals with 40
portraits). The three exhibitions share the same narrative structure and thematic blocks, and all
three end with a significant epilogue devoted to Spain, dealing with the present-day process of
search for and exhumation of people who disappeared during the Civil War and the Francoist
dictatorship.
In addition to photographic material, the exhibition includes two audiovisual recordings
explaining the testimonies of the families of disappeared people and reproducing the ambient
sound of detention centres and burial places.
In the framework of the exhibition, the three centres will also be organizing conferences to
reflect on and debate the phenomenon of forced disappearance.
Structure of the exhibition
1. The installations used to torture and “disappear” the victims, such as prisons, detention
centres, barracks and chupaderos
2. Memorials erected to immortalize the memory of the disappeared
3. Portraits of family members of victims of forced disappearance
4. Objects belonging to disappeared people
5. The process of searching for disappeared people
6. The process of exhumation of remains found in mass graves
7. Warehouses used to keep exhumed remains
8. The task of identifying exhumed remains, carried out by teams of forensic anthropologists
9. The handing over of identified remains to families
10. The process of burial
11. Epilogue: the disappeared in Spain
Gervasio Sánchez’s relation with the drama of the disappeared goes back to Guatemala in 1984,
when he started his professional career as a freelance journalist specializing in armed conflicts.
He has since covered many wars and carried out various long-term projects about the victims. In
the course of his 25-year career, the theme of forced disappearance has been a constant in the
work of this photographer who has travelled extensively in a number of countries affected by
this problem. “The Disappeared” is his biggest project to date.
Gervasio Sánchez (Cordoba, 1959)
In 1984, Gervasio Sánchez began working as a freelance photojournalist specializing in armed
conflicts. As a contributor to the Heraldo de Aragón, La Vanguardia and Cadena Ser, he has
spent over 25 years covering war, particularly in Latin America, Africa and the Balkans. He is the
author of books of photography, including El Cerco de Sarajevo (1995), and those published by
Blume: Vidas Minadas (1997 and 2002); Kosovo, Crónica de la deportación (1999); Niños de la
guerra (2000); La caravana de la muerte. Las víctimas de Pinochet (2002); Latidos del tiempo
(2004), together with the sculptor Ricardo Calero; Sierra Leona, guerra y paz (2005); Vidas
Minadas, Diez años (2007) and Sarajevo, 1992-2008 (2009). In 2001, jointly with Manuel
Leguineche, he coordinated the book Los ojos de la guerra, a tribute to Miguel Gil, and in 2004
he published the literary book Salvar a los niños soldados. Since 1998, he has been a UNESCO
Peace Envoy and, since 2001, has directed the Albarracín Photography and Journalism Seminar.
Aragonese institutions have awarded him the Medalla de Oro de Santa Isabel de Portugal and
the Medalla al Mérito Professional, as well as declaring him adoptive son of Saragossa. He has
received numerous prizes, including the Cirilo Rodríguez, Club Internacional de Prensa, Andalucía
de Cultura, Derechos Humanos de Periodismo, Liber Press, Javier Bueno, Ortega y Gasset and
Premio Nacional de Fotografía 2009.
General information
Dates
CCCB: From 1 February to 1 May 2011
(MUSAC: 29 January - 5 June 2011 / La Casa Encendida: 2 February – 20 March 2011)
Opening times
Tuesday to Sunday: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Thursdays: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Closed on Mondays except public holidays
Admission
Regular: 5 €
Press Service of the CCCB
Mònica Muñoz · Irene Ruiz
93 306 41 23 · www.cccb.org