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The 350 stencil drawings of real-size bicycles, which have been painted on the walls of houses and buildings around the city of Rosario since March 24, 2001 is the work of the Argentine artist Fernando Traverso. The bicycle silhouette symbolizes the absence of those who went missing and were abducted, victims of state terrorism, during Argentina's Dirty War (1976-1983). Traverso's initial motivation behind the memorial was to honor his 29 friends who were kidnapped, tortured, and killed, but has spread into the streets of Rosario to remember the city’s 350 citizens who were disappeared under Argentina’s military dictatorship.

Background

For most members of the resistance, bicycles were the preferred mode of transport. As Traverso’s friends in the resistance began disappearing, only their bicycles were left behind. Seeing an abandoned bicycle was often the first sign that its owner had been disappeared. These bicycles left standing in the streets of Rosario stood as memorials to those who were taken. Traverso made these memorials more permanent by spray painting the bici image on buildings throughout the city. Now, it has spread worldwide and Traverso works with communities to raise awareness for those who are disappeared still today.

For most members of the resistance, bicycles were the primary mode of transport. As Traverso’s friends began disappearing throughout Jorge Rafael Videla Redondo de facto presidency, only their bicycles would be left behind. Seeing an abandoned bicycle was often the first sign that its owner had been disappeared. These bicycles left standing in the streets of Rosario stood as memorials to those who were taken. Traverso made these memorials more permanent by spray painting the bici image on buildings throughout the city. Now, it has spread worldwide and Traverso works with many human rights organizations as well as impacted communities to raise awareness for those who are still disappearing today.

Memory Art

In the years following the Dirty War, Argentines have dealt with the atrocities of the past in a myriad of ways. From the 1984 state-sponsored Nunca Más (Never Again) truth commission to commemoration museums, memories of Argentina’s brutal dictatorial past have far from disappeared; rather the opposite, they have come to dominate various arenas of Argentinian culture, most notably, Argentine memory art. As exemplified through the successes of Traverso’s bici graffiti art campaign, memory art has become an important symbolic means of negotiating the past, not only by the artist and the effected community, but the international population as well.

Alongside Traverso’s graffiti art, Rosario is also home to Argentina’s first official Museum of Memory which offers a nuanced narration of the nations dictatorial past. Under the direction of Ruben Chababo, the Museum of Memory opened firstly in 2004, and then in a more permanent location in 2010. Since its original opening, issues of interpretation have been paramount in its organization. As a means to avoid the implied “before” and “after” connotations of a chronological portrayal, the Museum is organized by a series of aesthetics themes ranging from clandestine imprisonments to struggles in truth and justice. However, Chababo has remarked that Rosario’s true memory art cannot be found in any institution, but rather in its streets.

Mobilization of the Bici as a Memorial

Fernando Traverso’s bici [link to photo] memorial could originally only be found in the streets of Rosario, but have since become an international symbol remembering those who were disappeared under the various military dictatorships in Latin America, specifically during the 1970s. Traverso’s memorial has transformed Rosario’s urban space into a place of memory and is only one of many political memorials in Argentina [see external links] and in Latin America.

Traverso visited the US-Mexico border from May 25 through June 1, 2009 to attend the inaugural event for the exhibition of The Disappeared. During his visit he met with and held workshops for students from the Universidad Autonoma de Ciudad Juarez (UACJ) in Juarez, Mexico and the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). Traverso, along with Rubin Center Assistant Director Kerry Doyle and UACJ Visual Arts Professor Leon de la Rosa, came up with Bicycles on the Border, an action using Traverso’s bici image to respond to the current border realities. He held two daylong workshops at both universities, during which groups of students and community members printed images of bikes on large fabric banners. Those who participated in the action were encouraged to take the banners and take pictures of them in places along the border that evoke the ideas of disappearance, loss, or injustice that have come to be associated with the bici image.

These photographs became his next project, El Nieto de Herminia (Herminia’s Nephew). The image of the bici came to represent those who were disappeared. Family photos were taken with the bici in place of the missing relative. The original memorial started off small but “his art has spiraled outward, enmeshing more and more participants.”

His most recent project involves numbering real bicycles. He is encouraging cyclists to rescue abandoned bikes that have waited for years to be picked up by their owners. Just as the younger Argentine generations are becoming active – and demanding recognition for those who were disappeared – so are Traverso’s Bicis. The Bici images and everything this memorial has grown to incorporate serve as a continuous reminder of those who were disappeared. In Traverso’s word’s, “forgetting becomes the repressor’s ultimate triumph.”

See also

• History of Argentina
• National Reorganization Process
• Dirty War
• Operation Condor
• National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons (CONADEP)
• Street art

External Links

• Traverso's Website
• Good Memory/Buena Memoria (Marcelo Brodsky)
• 30,000 (Nicolas Guagnini)
• Identity (a collaboration by Carlos Alonso, Nora Aslan, Mireya Baglietto, Remo Bianchedi, Diana Dowek, Leon Ferrari, Rosana Fuertes, Carlos Gorranena, Adolfo Nigro, Luis Felipe Noe, Daniel Ontiveros, Juan Carlos Romero and Marcia Schvartz)
• The Museum of Horrors
• The Politics of Memory Museums (The Daily Beast)