neurotitan

During the Argentinian military dictatorship (1976-1983) forced disappearances occurred on a huge scale among the civilian population. One of the estimated 30,000 victims of this systematically perpetrated violation of human rights is Ferrari’s son Ariel. Officiating after the military dictatorship, President Raúl Alfonsin in 1983 ordered a commission to investigate these crimes: CONADEP – Comisión Nacional sobre la Desaparición de Personas (National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons). It presented its findings in a report exceeding 50,000 pages under the title Nunca Más. In 1995, Ferrari was invited by the Argentinian daily newspaper Pagina/12 to illustrate the report in 30 special issues.

It is in this context that he created 46 collages which were at times sharply criticised for their immediate juxtaposition of Nazi criminals and their symbolism with those of the Argentinian military dictatorship. Ferrari vehemently opposed such criticism and justified his artistic strategy as unmasking rogue regimes as such; artistic expression and political activism were inextricably linked for him. Throughout his life, Ferrari campaigned against forced disappearances and supported the work of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo*.

* The Madres de Plaza de Mayo are an association that was founded during the Argentinian military dictatorship with the aim to locate forcibly disappeared people – their daughters and sons. Since 1977 they meet weekly on the central Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires.