An international exhibition supported by Los Angeles-based arts organizations, bridging local and international responses to the 43 missing students from Mexico.
Thursday, February 18, 2016 5:00pm – 8:00pm
(January 25 Venice, CA) On Thursday, February 18, 2016 from 5pm-8pm, at 685 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291 (Old Venice Police Station – SPARC¹s historic headquarters), the Durón Gallery at SPARC will host an opening reception to present:
Ayotzinapa: A Roar of Silence.
On September 26, 2014, students from the Escuela Normal Rural de Ayotzinapa in the Mexican state of Guerrero boarded buses towards the town of Iguala, where they planned to protest a political event hosted by a political leader and his supporters. As the students arrived in Iguala, local police intercepted the buses. While details of the violent confrontation remain unclear, the police eventually opened fire, killing 6 and wounding 25. Another 43 student were herded into police vehicles and never seen again.
Just eight weeks after the disappearances, internationally renowned artist and activist Francisco Toledo, in conjunction with the Instituto de Artes Gráficas de Oaxaca (IAGO), received over 700 designs from international artists after launching an open call for artworks addressing the 43 missing students for an exhibition titled Carteles de Ayotzinapa.
Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC), the Center for the Study of Political Graphics (CSPG), ArtDivision, and Self-Help Graphics & Art all Los Angeles-based organizations committed to using art for social change‹are working together to bring Toledo¹s important, international exhibition to the United States for the first time. Ayotzinapa: A Roar of Silence will travel throughout Los Angeles, beginning at SPARC, later physically transported by 43 University students to Art Division, and finally, Self-Help Graphics & Art as a form of protest in response to this tragedy.
As the exhibition travels throughout the city, each organization has added artists creating works around this theme. The community is invited to view, support, and amplify the roar for justice heard from Ayotzinapa and throughout the world.
About SPARC: SPARC is a community-based non-profit arts organization founded in 1976 by Distinguished UCLA professor and artist Judy Baca, filmmaker Donna Deitch, and artist Christina Schlesinger. SPARC is rooted in Art, Community, Education and Social Justice. For more info visit:
http://www.SPARCinLA.org.