An aesthetics of the human: Peru's Ojo que Llora memorial. (August 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Greeley, Robin Adele; Orwicz, Michael R
• Other Names: Chouliaraki Lilie guest-editor.; Orwicz Michael guest-editor.; Greeley Robin guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Visual communication. Volume 18:Number 3(2019)
• Page Start: 353
• Page End: 377
• Publication Date: 2019-08
• Subjects: aesthetics -- El Ojo que Llora -- embodied memory -- Inter-American Court of Human Rights -- memorialization -- memorials -- perpetrator -- Peru -- symbolic reparations -- victim; Visual communication -- Periodicals; Popular culture -- Periodicals; Art and society -- Periodicals; 302.222
• DOI: 10.1177/1470357219842610
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1470-3572

Abstract

This article examines the role of an aesthetics of memorialization in symbolic reparations for victims of gross violations of human rights. By looking at the production, aesthetics and reception of the Ojo que Llora (Eye that Cries), a memorial cited as a symbolic reparation by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the case of Castro Castro v Peru (2006), the authors investigate tensions around concepts of 'victim', 'perpetrator', and the blurring of the lines between those two categories. In doing so, the article considers how the Ojo que Llora came to embody varying definitions of victim, perpetrator, and the human as these came into tension across legal, political, social, and aesthetic fields.