Maya Watanabe

Bullet

Maya Watanabe’s video installation Bullet unfolds within the context of the Peruvian justice and forensic systems. During the Peruvian internal armed conflict that occured between the subversive group Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) and the Peruvian military from 1980-2000, approximately 21,000 people, civilians, and guerilla fighters were killed. Most of the killings that were perpetrated by the military during this period of political upheaval were later deemed extrajudicial acts, and almost all of them were carried out with firearms. To evade any potential judicial proceeding against the military, the victims were hidden or disappeared to avoid their identification. Many remains have been found since the conflict, but have not been identified, pending under the status “N.N.”, meaning “No Name”. 

Resulting from a collaboration with the Peruvian Forensic Archaeologist team, Watanabe’s video documents one of the unclaimed bodies. Specifically, the video examines a bullet wound in the skull of an unidentified person killed by the Peruvian Armed Forces in 1986. The video is an indictment of these extrajudicial killings and a critique of the corruption and negligence that has led to so many unresolved cases. Bullet is an attempt to reconsitute the cultural and political significance of these erased murders, in the hopes that more cases will be solved so that the families and civilians affected by the conflict can mourn appropriately and see through the healing process.