León Ferrari (AR, 1920-2013) was an Argentine artist whose career spans over six decades. Throughout the years Ferrari worked with many different mediums to create his conceptual art, such as collages, writing and calligraphy, (wire) sculptures, and heliographic prints. His works often, but not always, concern political issues and conflict, such as state violence. Highly relevant here is the historical context of Argentina in the second half of the 20th century. From 1976 to 1983 a military dictatorship under the command of General Jorge Videla—a period known as ‘the Dirty War’— led Argentina, as it suffered one of the most bloody periods in its history. As many as an estimated 30.000 people disappeared, of which most were killed. One of them was Ariel Ferrari, León Ferrari’s son. During this period the artist and his family fled to Brazil, only to return in 1991.
Aimée Zito Lema placed a number of artworks by Ferrari in the
Collegekamer
as a footnote to her exhibition in the Oude Kerk in 2021. Zito Lema was attracted by the use of text and image in the pieces by Ferrari, mediums she also explored for her installations in the Oude Kerk. The works by Ferrari in the exhibition are specifically chosen by Zito Lema in relation to her own. Even though from a different generation, nature, and status, they refer to the Catholic Church and the dictatorship in Argentina; entry points shared by Zito Lema’s work. Ferrari’s Carta al Papa and his braille piece La muerte huirá (1997) are two examples present in the footnote to the exhibition.