Erika Diettes

The Museo Rayo in Roldanillo presents the solo exhibition "Photographs," by artist Erika Diettes. It includes works like Sudarios (Shrouds, 2011), Silencios (Silences, 2005), and Río Abajo (Down River, 2008), series that address the pain and memories caused by inhumane events in which particular stories appear immersed and trapped. Diettes delves into these personal stories and restores their presence and character. To do so, she approaches the photographic portrait as a way to encounter others and, most importantly, making sure that the character of the subject is entirely manifested. Sudarios centers on accounts by women that were victims of violence in the Department of Antioquia, Colombia, who had to experience painful events that remain etched in their memories. The empathy that we feel for the victims exposes us to the sorrow caused by an "unrepaired" pain. In Silencios, memory is embodied by a handwritten story—in this instance about horrific experiences during the holocaust—reproduced next to the portrait of the person that recounts it. The images are portraits of Jews that survived the holocaust and that confront their past for Diettes's project. Lastly, the project Río Abajo consists of several images that are to a certain extent rendered enigmatic by some objects that appear to be floating on water. These objects are vestiges that used to belong to people that disappear and left them behind; objects suspended in time without someone to wear them, awaiting the return of the person that once inhabited them.