Memento Mori

"...goes beyond documentary images of war, suffering and grief to give a human face to the universal issues of social injustice and the cost of terrorism. A powerful and moving memorial to the victims of Colombia’s ongoing armed conflict between the guerrillas and the government – where the number of people killed over the past 50 years totals more than 250,000 – Memento Mori includes three bodies of work originating from the direct testimonies of the families of the victims, as well as in objects belonging to them." ~L'Oeil De la Photographie

"...haunting tribute to the more than a quarter of million Colombians who have ‘disappeared’ in the last half century. Diettes’ images explore memory, pain and death, and the work has been artfully divided into four bodies over two volumes. With accompanying essays by Ileana Diéguez, an interview with the artist by Anne Wilkes Tucker and texts by Diettes herself, this is a poignant and thought provoking book." ~Professional Photography

"For those of us who have worked with Latin American violences, it is sometimes difficult to know what can still touch  people when the everyday pervasiveness of suffering has become a backcloth to life. These photographs show the power of the image to reach and disturb us. Disappearance is a special  form of daily torture, for its victims, of course, but especially for those who love them. Its systematic practice in Latin America, and in particular Colombia, highlights the cruelty of somatic politics in the region. With no body, there is no crime. With no body, the grief is tinged with hope. These photographs communicate this anguish, by focussing on three dimensions of what remains and reminds when a loved some body has become no body." ~Professor Jenny Pearce, Professor of Latin American Politics at the Peace Studies Dept at the University of Bradford

"The importance of Relicarios is both as a personal memorial and as a public acknowledgement of the trauma and loss that lay in the wake of decades of violence. Its depth and authenticity derive from the collaborative nature of the process and the sensitive involvement of the bereaved whose concerns remain the central focus of the project." ~Alasdair Foster, Artlink