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Museum of Contemporary Religious Art Presents ‘Sudarios’

Saint Louis University’s Museum of Contemporary Religious Art (MOCRA) presents Sudarios, a body of work by Colombian artist Erika Diettes, who interviewed and photographed women who were forced to witness the torture and murder of their loved ones during Colombia’s long-running armed conflict.

Sudarios
Erika Diettes, Sudarios, 2011. Installation at Ex Teresa Art Actual, Mexico City, 2012. Digital photograph on silk, 7.48 x 4.4 ft. Image courtesy of the artist.

The moving black-and-white portraits, which freeze in time instants of deep sadness, are printed on large panels of fine silk. The title “Sudarios” (Spanish for “shrouds”) alludes to the burial cloth of Jesus, and the works have been exhibited in sacred sites across the world. Described as an “accumulation of suspended pain,” they will be displayed hanging from the ceiling of MOCRA, which is housed in a spacious former chapel.

The exhibition begins on Sunday, Sept. 25, with a lecture by the artist at 1:30 p.m. titled “Stories Told from the Threshold.” The lecture will take place in Room 3400 of Morrissey Hall (3700 Lindell Blvd. on the Saint Louis University campus). An opening reception and opportunity to see the exhibition Sudarios follows the lecture at MOCRA, a short walk away. Both events are free and open to the public. Complimentary parking is available. Call 314-977-7170 or visit mocra.slu.edu for more information.

Sudarios will be on display at MOCRA through Dec. 4. Regular museum hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday. Admission is free, though there is a suggested donation of $5, or $1 for students and children. Call 314-977-7170 or visit mocra.slu.edu for more information.


Erika Diettes (b. 1978) is a Colombian visual artist and social anthropologist who explores issues of memory, pain, absence, and death in a variety of mediums from her multidisciplinary perspective. Her work has been exhibited in unique spaces linked to re-memoration processes developed by the victims’ movements in Colombia as well as at other venues, including the Museums of Modern Art of Bogotá, Cali, Medellín, and Baranquilla in Colombia, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Santiago de Chile, at the Museum of Fine Arts and the Fotofest Biennial in Houston, the Festival de la Luz in Buenos Aires, the Ballarat Foto Biennale in Australia, the Malta Festival in Poznán, Poland, and at CENTER in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her work is part of the permanent collections of the Museo de Antioquia (Colombia) and the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, as well as important public and private collections in Colombia and the United States.