NARRATOR: 

In the installation Atrabiliarios or Defiant Ones, women’s shoes are encased in a wall, trapped behind windows made of cow bladder. Only hazily visible behind this membrane, the shoes echo the suspended state of the disappeared– presumed dead, but still living in the memories of those who remain.  

SALCEDO: 

In Atrabiliarios, I had placed myself exactly there, with minimal resources, and working with the most despicable material you can think of; something that— that— that we all feel repelled by, cow bladders(?) on one hand, and old shoes. We don’t like— we don’t like old shoes. (Sterrett: Mm-hm) But nevertheless, every time we see a shoe on the street, we wonder what happened there. Say, “That’s the wrong place for that shoe to be.” 

So I wanted to bring in this room, lots of these experiences. So instead of being a private experience, it becomes a collective experience, therefore a social problem. And that’s what I would like to address; address this as a social problem; it’s not something that is happening to one person; it’s something that is happening as we sit here, and it will continuing happening. So it’s not only the niches that you see on the walls, but also the boxes, as empty recipients, waiting for one of these to come.