Trauma, art, and memory in the work of Guillermo Núñez: A critical reading of El jardín de los jardineros (1974)
Abstract
This article examines the epistemological limits of history and memory in the reconstruction of the past, addressing this tension through trauma theory and its inscription in art. The analysis focuses on the case of chilean artist Guillermo Núñez (1930–2024), who was detained and tortured by the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA) in 1974, during the early months of the chilean civic-military dictatorship (1973–1990). The study explores the series El jardín de los jardineros (1974), conceived after his first imprisonment at the Air Force War Academy, one of several detention centers in which he was held during two separate arrests. It argues that, in the face of the impossibility of discursively representing trauma, art functions as a critical device that interrupts historical linearity, eludes explanatory frameworks, and opens a space for a sensitive form of knowledge that challenges the limits of what can be said.
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