Elemento de rescate: piernas (Rescue Element: Legs)

Carlos Leppe identifies the body, fragmented and bruised, as the receptor of violent social wounds inflicted by Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship in Chile. These works were shown in an exhibition entitled Reconstruccion de escena (Reconstruction of a Scene), which also included works based on photographs of him posing in uncomfortable positions that suggest acts of violence. Here, the artist’s lower legs, wrapped in medical bandages, exemplify the highly coded ways artists sought to avoid censorship while nevertheless expressing complex social and political realities.