Evaporated Glory

In June 1994, the remains of 10 people were handed over by the police for their families. Months before they had been kidnapped and murdered by a paramilitary squad then burnt with kerosene to prevent identification. In an act of contempt the remains were delivered in cardboard boxes, most from the milk bran Gloria.

On 14 June 1995, the dictatorship of Alberto Fujimori enacted the Amnesty Act, the military tried for this and other crimes get out of jail. At dawn on 17 June I pasted the collage “evaporated” in the Expressway, opposite the National Stadium, with spray adhesive.

On June 23^rd called a performance on the occasion of the National March Against Impunity. I put one of the boxes on my head and handed out flyers to invite people do the same and go to Congress, where the amnesty law was declared. The flyer denounced “the state industry to evaporate people.” The march lasted several hours, arriving at dusk near Congress. A police cordon blocked us and we threw the boxes on their heads, they kicked them out and unintentionally brought the boxes closer to Congress.

Previously, in October 1994, I exhibited the installation “Evaporated Gloria” (Glory Evaporated) at the Art School of the Faculty of Arts and Human Sciences at the National University of San Marcos. The invitation to the exhibition were silkscreen prints on pieces of Gloria cardboard milk.

During the opening night of the exhibition a group of artists improvised a ritual in which they cut their hair, which was spontaneously joined by the audience, that of which become recorded on video.