Natalia Ludmila

43+ (In Their Words)
04.06–05.06.2023

In 2014, in Iguala, in the southern state of Guerrero in Mexico, forty-three students from the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural School went missing while in alleged police custody. After exhaustive official and independent investigations, only the remains of two of the students were found in consequence, leaving both their families and the country at large in an unresolved limbo state that lingers until today.

This piece investigates the possibility of condemnation through aesthetics by counterbalancing violence with sound. In doing so, it thoroughly renounces such a sad state of affairs within the country. The sound piece knits a dark and somewhat mysterious narrative that alludes to a general sentiment among the public — at the time, authorities were reticent and dismissive regarding this case. Using abstract sounds and samples from the first official press conference the Attorney-General gave, 43+ constructs a monologue that wishes bring peace of mind, even if fictional.

This event has carved a void in the country’s social knit, evidencing the rampant wave of violence that, to this date, engulfs the country. As a result, the number of people touched, shattered, disappeared and killed by this enveloping brutality constantly rises. For now, the unofficial count of cases of forced disappearances tallies 100 000, thus, 43+.

—Natalia Ludmila