De la serie Relicarios
Artist: Erika Diettes
Medium: Sculpture
Artist Statement: Reliquaries are a set of cubes/capsules that are arranged on the floor as though they were graves or markers. Embedded in these rubber tripolymer cubes are garments and objects that belonged to the disappeared, treasured by their mothers and other family members like relics. But in this case the objects have been delivered permanently to the artist in order to give them “a dignified resting place,” in the words of one family member who delivered them. Relatives of victims travelled hundreds of miles to bequeath these things that would show the world their pain and what they had lost.
Biography
Artist Biography: Erika Diettes (Colombia, 1978) is a visual artist and social communicator who graduated from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and has a master's degree in Anthropology from the Universidad de los Andes. Both her double degree and her anthropological background are reflected in her exhibitions as well as in her publications, due to the clear intention of establishing an intimate dialogue between her work and the observer. This can be evidenced in her work as she puts the knowledge, she has at her disposal to intervene artistically, taking into account a previous process of research and critical analysis of the context and its protagonists. As a result, there is a confluence between image, message, and process, a trinity that is the conceptual and structural cornerstone of all her works. One of Erika Diettes’ focuses is her outstanding work with victims of the Colombian armed conflict. An exhaustive work that has been recognized and supported by each of the mourners and victims, who have contributed for her images not only their stories but the objects and crucial references in her creations. She is also known internationally thanks to the different places she has taken her exhibitions and the awards she has received. Among them was a nomination for the Visionary Awards in 2015 where she was a finalist, and as a winner of the Tim Hetherington Trust Scholarship and the World Press Photo Foundation Fellowship (2017-2018). \n In April 2019 Erika Diettes was selected as part of the group of women artists, leaders, and intellectuals who within each of their respective fields are exemplary for their contribution to commemorating and celebrating the achievements and struggle of women around the world. Her exhibition SUDARIOS has been chosen to open the cultural calendar of the city of Liverpool, England, dedicated throughout 2019 to celebrate and commemorate International Women's Day. \n Website link: https://www.erikadiettes.com/
