Anónimo 1 (Homenaje a los desaparecidos y torturados dentro de los hechos violentos durante el gobierno de Turbay Ayala) (Anonymous 1 [homage to those disappeared and tortured in violent incidents])

Born in 1958 in Pradera, Colombia, Maria Evella Marmolejo studied art at the Universidad de Santiago de Cali. She has centered her art on pressing key concerns: political oppression, specifically, in 1980s Colombia; social and economic conditions in Latin America; and environmental and gender issues. Her work is characterized by its ritualistic nature and feminist and political intent, as seen in her first performance, Anónimo 1 (Anonymous 1), held at the Plazoleta del Centro Administravio Municipal in Cali, in homage to the tortured and disappeared during the regime of Julio César Turbay Ayala (president, 1978–82). For this performance Marmolejo’s self-inflicted wounds and their subsequent healing were intended to bring to the public’s attention the political violence prevalent at the time.