2026
English edition
Texts: Victoria Noorthoorn and Patricio Orellana, with the collaboration of Nicolás Cuello, Fernando García and Claudio Iglesias
Design: Pablo Alarcón
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24 pages
Format: 30 × 43 cm
ISBN 978-987-22339-3-8
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This publication documents the exhibition Darkness Visible: The Long Shadow of Dictatorship, organised by the Museo Moderno at Spazio Punch in Venice.
“In Paradise Lost (1667), John Milton uses the term “darkness visible” to describe Hell. This oxymoron serves as an apt metaphor for the role of the visual arts in bringing to light what has been hidden or censored and yet remains unbearably present. By bringing together the work of artists who have faced the horrors of violence in its many forms, the exhibition raises questions: How can art give visibility to bodies, ideas and lives that were forcibly disappeared? What visual and cultural forms have the power to denounce atrocities without reproducing mechanisms of spectacle or banalisation? How is historic trauma passed down, transformed and reinterpreted across generations to keep the act of remembering alive? How does political authoritarianism intersect with gender-based violence? How can spaces for political participation and social interaction be created and upheld – in the streets, the underground or nightlife settings – in contexts of extreme authoritarianism? Given the current democratic instability across the globe, these questions take on a sense of urgency. The strategies devised by the artists of Darkness Visible protect memory and guide us through the shadows of the present.”
