Art, memory, and disappearance in contemporary Mexico: A conversation with Alfredo López Casanova

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In his work, the Mexican sculptor Alfredo López Casanova pushes the boundaries of both art and politics. For Violence: An international journal, he takes a look back at his personal and collective trajectory, from his early and "natural" political and social commitment in his neighborhood to the tragic reality of contemporary Mexico. He reflects on several of his previous individual works, such as the bronze sculpture Fray Antonio Alcalde, and collective projects he is a part of, such as "Huellas de la Memoria" (Footprints of Memory). For the latter initiative, the intimate recollections of the families of disappeared persons are engraved on the soles of shoes, powerfully illustrating how the construction of memory goes hand in hand with calls for justice and truth.Author biographiesAlfredo López Casanova is a Mexican sculptor from the city of Guadalajara. He studied at the University of Guadalajara’s School of Plastic Arts and has won several sculpture awards and commissions. He is the creator of more than 20 public works, both figurative and geometric, in a number of cities, including Guadalajara, Mexico City, and Havana (Cuba). Alfredo López Casanova is also well known for his long-standing political and social commitment to several causes. In recent years he has been particularly involved with the relatives of the disappeared, especially through his participation in the Footprints of Memory collective, which carries out the important work of denunciation, awareness-raising, and memory for the disappeared in Mexico and other parts of the worldSabrina Melenotte is a research fellow at the Research Institute for Development (IRD), a member of the Migrations and Societies Research Unit (URMIS), and a member of the editorial board of Violence: An international journal. Following a doctoral research on the armed conflict in theChiapas Highlands region (Mexico), she now conducts her political anthropology research on missing persons and the government of the dead in Mexico. Her forthcoming coordination of a Mook, Mexico: A Land of the Missing, as well as other articles relating to the search for clandestinegraves, contribute to an understanding of the social, political, and cultural expressions deployed to cope with ongoing, extreme, and massive violence.Verónica Vallejo Flores holds a doctorate in history from the University of Paris 1, Pantheón-Sorbonne, and is a Research Associate at American Worlds (CNRS/EHESS, UMR 8168) and the Center for Nineteenth-Century History (Paris 1, EA 3550). Her research focuses primarily onordinary conflicts and judicial practices in Mexico in the 19th century. She has recently taken an interest in the history of the present day, in particular the study of the reactions of citizens and society to the phenomenon of forced disappearance. One of her papers, which will appear shortlyin the mook Mexico: A Land of the Missing, analyzes the significance of the sculpture Fray Antonio Alcalde by Alfredo López Casanova.