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147 memoria "Life is Beautiful" and the Dirty War

A Talk and Art Exhibition by Chilean Artist Victor Videla Godoy

Monday, October 25, 2010
5:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Design Media Arts Grad Gallery
Broad Bldg
Los Angeles, CA United States

Chilean artist, Victor Videla Godoy was imprisoned and tortured during the Pinochet dictatorship, and later on he was kidnapped by Coordination Federal, an Argentinean Police force. After two weeks of torture and interrogation by the Chilean Secret Service, as part of the Plan Condor, he was moved to cell number 147 in the prison of Villa Devoto, Buenos Aires, where many other political prisoners were held.

Victor Videla has developed a very powerful installation using the personal correspondence he had with his mother during the year he was kept in this small cell. At the beginning, as in Benigni’s Life is Beautiful, his letters painted a very different landscape, a parallel life that he created for his mother and for himself to maintain a link to the outside and a source of hope. At the end, the letters became a personal portrait of his life in the prison camp - a living testimony of the dirty war in Argentina and Chile.

The talk will be in Spanish. Opening reception starts at 5:00pm. The exhibition will be open to the public on Tuesday and Wednesday (Oct 26 & 27) from 11:00am to 3:00pm

Cost: Free and open to the public. Refreshments provided