Warprint: The Consequences of War on Society
Since the beginning of humanity, war conflicts, motivated by various interests, have always been present. Throughout history, various events have triggered wars, some of which took up to a hundred years to end. The different wars between nations, and even populations and tribes, are based on achieving greater dominance of one over the other, and in which economic, power, ideological and / or territorial struggles end up causing innumerable damages. The breadth of the information regarding the different sides that have actively participated in these events, and who, in their case, were winners and those who were defeated, it's unlimited. That is why this project is not about who carried out what, or the causes of their acts, but rather seeks to show the consequences that these events have had on those who have suffered them the most: civilians.
According to the documentary Bombing War: From Guernica to Hiroshima, attacking civilians was a tactic of weakening state forces and, above all, moral damage to society.
In addition to historical events not widely known, as the Armenian Genocide - unlike the Nazi Holocaust - different artists have served as a point of reference and inspiration to carry out this work, among which are mentioned: Francisco de Goya, Doris Salcedo, Marina Abramović, Alexander McQueen, George Orwell, Joseph Conrad, and even the report of the diplomat Roger Casement, who actively opposed abuses in the Congo and the Amazon during colonialism in the 19th century. These artists seek to portray human pain and suffering, the engine for their creations. It is not relevant to express figures related to the number of deaths and injuries, but to expose the psycho-social consequences of the different violent acts and the impairment of the quality of life: devastation and ruins, massacres, uncertainty, feeling of insecurity and lack of protection, famine and scarcity, exodus of communities and entire populations, states of anxiety and depression; Physical, psychological and moral damages that cost to heal even with the passage of time, leaving a mark or scar, footprint or incision that never ends up being erased.
Between these artists the techniques used to carry out their works differ, but it is in the thematic darkness where the connection point is found: Francisco de Goya shows us in his images the atrocities committed in Spain during the War of Independence, between 1808 and 1814, transferring the lived horror, seen with his own eyes, to copper plates using the etching, dry point and aquatint procedures, thus forming a collection of 82 engravings. Doris Salcedo, on the other hand, whose artistic discourse seeks to reconstruct history and its forgotten fragments, is inspired by the pain of victims of violent acts and critical political-social situations. Salcedo conceives his work as “a funeral prayer” and states that “only through mourning, the most human action that exists, can the dignity and humanity taken away be restored.” The public installation created for the Istanbul Biennale 2003 is one of the works whose meaning most appeals to me and is related to this research topic. It alludes to the way in which war and the devastation produced are capable of embedding themselves in everyday life. Balkan Baroque is a work belonging to Marina Abramović, where it highlights the inability of the human being to completely clean the trace of war events. In her original performance, performed at the 1997 Venice Biennale, the artist, who presented her work publicly in a multisensory way - olfactory, auditory and visual experiences - cleaned more than 6,000 cow bones while singing popular Balkan songs. In the case of Alexander McQueen, fashion designer and number one reference, he made a collection entitled The Highland Rape, inspired by the Jacobite uprisings and forced displacements of the Scottish Highlands in the 18th century. Thin models paraded along the catwalk in mostly ripped dresses, some stained with the designer's own blood, thus establishing the analogy between the event committed by the United Kingdom and the concept of the collection: human rights violations. George Orwell, with his 1984 book, a novel talking about totalitarianism, in which the feelings of oppression due to the tyrannical government are quite illuminating of the situation, inflicting the cruellest punishments on those who even think about something that the laws or the state regards it as illegal or against its ideology. And finally, Joseph Conrad, with his book The Heart of Darkness and Roger Casement's Casement Report, where both relate, one in the form of a novel and the other as a report, the terrifying Colonialism, where one of the countless atrocities consisted in enslaving minors as young as six years old in order to carry bundles twice their weight.
The choice of this theme is given by my deep attraction to dark content, interpreting them through the perspective of aesthetics and beauty. It is important to highlight the optic play of the piece - a moment of greater reflection on the concept of the work - because, at its first reading, it seems to be ennobled with mere ornaments, requiring a second reading to observe in detail the iconographic motifs used and their significance. This change in perspective was inspired by the story of Conrad, who, being in European lands, was completely unaware of the rampant brutality that occurred wherever he was going; analogy, moreover, of the omission or (un) conscious ignorance on the part of History, or, better said, in its teaching, the manifestation of human suffering.
Using a corset as a means of spreading the concept has more to do with its formalism and the connection with my profession - Fashion Design - than with discourse. Although it can be mentioned that this part of the clothing has been in close use, in its principles, for reasons of protection and defense, evolving to be, today, one of the objects that causes the greatest desire in its acquisition and use, being an excellent way to contribute to the dissemination of the aforementioned idea in a market system that is said to be “superficial” and “frivolous”. The material in which it is made is, possibly, another puzzling element that would make you wonder why in linoleum? This material is used in the engraving procedures -Linography- to make a matrix where, once inked, the motif is stamped on paper. But it is the moment prior to the creation of the matrix where the parallelism is found: the incisions that are made to complete the carving are cuts of material that, once made, does not return to its place, leaving the sharp object a footprint in its step.
Taking ownership of Goya's iconography, in his Desastres de la Guerra collection, because his production is the most suitable –as well as realistic– at a conceptual level, a new one was composed, adapted to the corset format and defragmenting areas of greater interest. Interpretive image of events explicit in barbarities and suffering. In the iconographic motifs, heartbreaking images of people being mutilated, assaulted and tortured can be seen, representing the human suffering on which the concept is based. "Whether the color of mourning is black or white, naturally depends on religious ideas ... as religious motives disappear, black is prevailing throughout the world as the color of mourning" (Heller, 2000, p. 130 ). Symbolically black is associated with the negative, violence and death, in turn, with grief over someone's death. This explains the choice of black as the color for the leather threads, which run through the ends of the corset through the linoleum pieces as if it were a body.