Javier Sanchez
"Ayotzi", 2015
Neon, metal
Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art Collection
Gift of the artist
2015.14.001

Javier Sanchez’s mute number doesn’t tell us what he is counting, but his title gives us a clue. On September 26th, 2014, forty-three students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College (“Ayotzi” for short) were abducted on their way to a protest in the Mexican state of Guerrero. They have not been seen alive again. The inadequate response of the authorities—some of whom were in collaboration with the police and cartel members who allegedly carried out the abduction—sparked outraged protests across Mexico. Sanchez describes the disturbed posture of his numbers as a response to the incompleteness of the official inquiry into the murders. Like the investigation, his “43” will never be set right. The blue glow, he says, represents hope. (DKS)