The Memory of Water

The Memory of Water

In Chile, on September 11, 1973, General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte seized power in a military coup. According to Amnesty International, under Pinochet’s dictatorship some 40.000 people were incarcerated, tortured and interrogated, and over 3200 were Disappeared by the DINA, Pinochet’s secret police.

It is the Memory of the Desaparecidos of Chile, which I wish to address in this project.

Abuse of State Power is not new, and whenever we find ourselves thinking that extraordinary renditions and executions belong in the realm of History, or occur solely within a declared State of War, we have only to look at the existence of CIA black sites or read the 2014 report by The Constitution Project Task Force on Detainee Treatment which states that: “The United States tortured people. Even the most acrobatic lawyering cannot escape that conclusion. Our government also engaged in cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment even more frequently”.

The Memory of Water is a long term reportage project which does not aim to sensationalise but to humanise, as it seeks to find what the viewer can find in common with those still suffering from the pain of loss, and to uphold the Memory of those who were Disappeared; whose remains were burned and the ashes tossed into the river Perquilauquen which runs alongside the Colonia Dignidad, simply because they thought differently to those in power at that time.

The Memory of Water marries my interests in long form documentary reportage with issues of socio-political importance. It is a collaboration project insomuch as it requires the full participation of members of the Desaparecidos’ families and for ethical reasons, no images, interviews or memorabilia will be published without their prior consent.

Since I began research for this project, in December 2017, I have made a month long trip to Chile. During this trip, I met with wives, mothers, sons, and nieces of Desaparecidos linked to Colonia Dignidad, a German farming community which served as a clandestine interrogation site during the Pinochet regime, at the foot of the Andes. The Guardian US recently published a feature I wrote on the subject, beginning the campaign to raise awareness and encourage the Chilean government to continue with the searches for mass graves and bring some secour to the families of the Missing; those whose lives were torn apart in the search for answers as to their kin’s final destination.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/02/chile-disappeared-excavations-colonia-dignidad

The work achieved during that month long trip was essential for me to gain the trust of those most closely involved, and to work alongside organisations such as the Associacion por la Memoria y los Derecho Humanos de la Colonia Dignidad, in Santiago who have touched on the prospect of giving the finished project an exhibition, in one of the Memorial sites of Santiago.

I am returing to continue this work from Aug to September, with the aim to continue documenting the effects of the aftermath of State abuse on the land and its people, in order for The Memory of Water to stand as a beacon to the Memory of those who were Disappeared by the Pinochet regime, so that they do not remain buried in History.

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