The Lost Steps

In this series, Milagros de la Torre reconstructs one of the most terrible paths in Peru’s social and political history. The artist undertook a long research at the State Archive in the Palace of Justice in Lima, which contains documents concerning corruption and crime, as well as a surprising set of objects classified as “evidence” of crimes committed over the last decades (some of them famous, and others unfortunately lost in anonymity). These vestiges, displaced from their violent context, are captured by the photographer in their precarious condition as fragile testimonies of a violent and fragmented memory, destined to remain tucked away in a forgotten archive. By taking as its basis evidence that is now part of a state institution, the documental treatment of this series questions the legitimacy of political discourses attributed to Peru’s recent and painful history. In their light, the discourse of “not wanting to see” is delegitimated and returns to open deep wounds. (VQ)