The talk aims to review the work La ausencia by the photographer Santiago Porter. This work, produced between 2001 and 2002, reflects on the implications and consequences of the AMIA bombing. With the 30th anniversary of the attack on the mutual organization having been observed on July 18, this talk could be an interesting opportunity to share the story behind the production of this work—the motivations, ideas, and its realization, and especially how this series has evolved over time. In this new context, it seems timely to reconsider what it means to produce work of this nature.

Santiago Porter was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1971. He has received numerous grants and awards, including the Guggenheim Fellowship (2002) and the Konex Award for Visual Arts (2022). He is the author of the books Piezas (2003), La Ausencia (2007), Bruma (2017), and Los días nublados (2023). He has held numerous solo and group exhibitions in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, Switzerland, and Egypt, among others. Today, his work is part of both national and international collections, including the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (Argentina), the J. Paul Getty Museum (United States), and the Larivière Collection (Argentina). He is currently a professor in the Department of Social Sciences at the Universidad de San Andrés and in the Photography Program at the Universidad Nacional de San Martín.