Guatemala, The Road of War

Freda Guttman’s multi-media installation Guatemala! The Road of War uses the patterns, colours, and configurations of traditional Guatemalan textiles in sculptural and two-dimensional works. Each sculpture represents a traditional Guatemalan Indian village, and is meant to stand as a monument to it and its people. Since 1982, the Guatemalan army has destroyed over 400 villages in its campaign of terror and repression. Freda Guttman undertook this project “as a response to the fact that despite the misery and horror, despite the genocidal scale of events there, Guatemala remains largely in to us.” Multi media exhibition about the Mayan Indians who make up to 60 per cent of the population of Guatemala. The work deals with their history, their culture, their intricately woven clothing, and more particularly it is about their present militarized context.