Photography Graduate’s Work Featured in Paraguay Museum
Viviana Chamorro, one of our BA Hons Photography graduates, has recently had her work featured in a museum exhibition. We caught up with her to find out what the exhibition involved and what she’s planning next:
“During the summer holidays I travelled to Asuncion, Paraguay (my home country), and I had the opportunity to show my graduate work at the Museum of Memories.
The Museum of Memories is the former Centre of Investigations (Torture Centre) during the years of Stroessner, the dictator that was in power from 1954 to 1989.
During his regime, there were gross violations of human rights, amongst others, the kidnapping, torture and executions of many political prisoners.
My graduate job was about the discovery of the secret police archive, that for years documented the luck of these political prisoners and that led to the confirmation of the existence of the Condor Plan, an agreement between dictators in South America to cooperate with each other to suppress political opposition.
For my graduate work I made a photographic book titled ‘A glimpse into the Archives of Terror’ that featured places and people, all of them documented in the files of the secret police.
The former Torture Centre is now the Museum of Memories, and they asked if it was possible to show the work there. The show was from the 13th to the 16th August, 2019.”
Lecturer in Photography Holly Birtles commented: “I think it is great that a recent graduate has already had a solo show in a museum. The audience were families of the victims that featured in the book and people that support the museum. It was a very political and conceptually involved project, consisting of a photographic installation and photobook, previously showcased at the Free-range exhibition in the Truman Brewery, Brick Lane.”
Viviana will now be starting a Masters Degree in Arts and Politics at the Goldsmiths University this September.
For those interested in our BA (Hons) Photography course at University Centre Farnborough, you can find out more here or attend one of our Open Events throughout the year.
