Comarca de Ausencias (English Subtitles)

Everybody has to be born somewhere, for me it was Cunco, Chile by pure chance.

My father was a railroad worker. He got into trouble and was sent to a rural auxiliary rail line as punishment.

It could have been anywhere, but it was Cunco, and in this region my childhood was dispersed.

When I turned 17 I left to attend University in Santiago. I returned little.
Later, chance and the dictatorship pushed me far. I spent almost 30 years without visiting Chile.

Upon returning, Cunco had changed and so had I. I couldn't find one miserable photo to console my nostalgia or confirm my memories.
Moved, I began to photograph my own ghosts in order to obtain a collection of images that would help me remember.

Together with the poet Elicura Chihuailaf and the professor Viviana Geeregat we realized more than 30 visits to schools. We were there to explain the project but above all to talk about local identity and collective memory.

Soon, we became aware that people wanted to see their photos enlarged and framed, so we had to invent a way to bring the photos to them. Even though there were no walls on which to hang them.
Scott Meier, creator of this video, proposed to mount a clothesline, but with photos.

We call them Expo-Installations.

This way we could go anywhere and hang photos in front of the people, intervening in everyday life.

In Chile we realized more than 40 Expo-Installations. In town plazas, schools, soccer fields, and open air markets.

But we also went to massive events like a fair in Temuco for the Society for Agricultural Development.

In total more than 50,000 people saw these photos.

The grand protagonists of this project are the inhabitants of this region. But theyre accustomed to having pictures taken that theyll never see.
This is why we passed out 1000 photos between Temuco and the Cordillera mountain range.

The people made this project their own.
Also, one of the photos of this collection was the cover of the literary publication Poetry International from San Diego State University in California. The magazine Sudestada of Buenos Aires also published an extensive article. And some of these photos received awards, both nationally and internationally.

Before heading off again, I want to leave a lot of portraits of daily life, of landscape, and of the people. That which I missed so much upon coming back to this Land of Absences. -Comarca de Ausencias-
-Héctor González de Cunco

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Comarca de Ausencias
• Hector Gonzalez de Cunco
• Scott Graham Meier
• Viviana Geeregat
• Chile
• Cunco

[angeluz1661]

Maravilloso Video...mil gracias Hector Gonzalez por el regalo...encantada de conocerte!!!...

[josefechevarria]

Fantástico!!

[Chumbekita]

pasmantes fotos !

Photos époustouflantes !

[anyelina98]

Buenísimo

[Starcatblack]

Sencillamente magistral. Gracias. Scb.

[oubliejamais]

blanco y negro tiene mas vida

[ECUADORESesTV]

muy buen video, gracias por compartirlo.

[natymondelo]

Felicitaciones!! así se hace!! mi admiración, compañero!

[paudeby]

¡Impecable! muy notable el proyecto fotografico, excelente calidad! ;)

[akaureliano1980]

exlente amigo Hector, realmente es un trabajo notable