“Fantasmas pretéritos” is an essay written by the critic and translator Ronald Christ (b. 1936) for the catalogue for Imbunches, an exhibition of works by the artist Catalina Parra (b. 1941) at the Galería Época (Santiago, 1977). In “Variaciones no ornamentales” [see the ICAA Digital Archive (doc. no. 748852)], an article about the artist written in 1991, Christ described it as her first “really important” solo exhibition. Contributors to the catalogue, which was produced by V.I.S.U.A.L., included Parra, the artist Eugenio Dittborn (b. 1943), and the theorist and writer Ronald Kay (1941–2017).
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Kay, Dittborn, and Parra started a group that held theoretical discussions in which other artists participated. They had a number of books and catalogues from Germany that interested parties could read. In addition to their publication project, they developed a platform to provide feedback on their works based on conversations and readings. They produced a series of catalogues for Galería Época, including: “V.I.S.U.A.L. nelly richard rOnald kay dOs textOs sobre 9 dibujOs de dittbOrn” (1976); “El huevo (environment)” by Wolf Vostell (1932–1998); “Final de Pista. 11 pinturas y 13 graficaciones de Eugenio Dittborn” and “Motivo de Yeso” by Patricio Rojas (b. 1951) produced for Espacio Siglo XX, which was started in 1977 by artists such as Lotty Rosenfeld (1943–2020), Alberto Pérez (1926–1999), and Juan Castillo (b. 1952), among others. [To view another text from the V.I.S.U.A.L. catalogues, see the following about Eugenio Dittborn, “Delachilenapintura, historia, recorrido” (doc. no. 732195) by Nelly Richard.]
Catalina Parra was born into a family of artists; her father was the “anti-poems” poet Nicanor Parra (1914–2018), the brother of Violeta Parra (1917–1967), the singer-songwriter and folklorist. She began her career in Germany, where she lived from 1968 to 1972. In 1980 she settled in New York where she received a Guggenheim grant. She presented her first important solo show at MoMA and went on to build her international career by exhibiting her work in different parts of the world. She always kept in touch with Chile, returning occasionally to show her work there. The work she produced in the 1970s was, according to Christ, characterized by threads, fragments, and visible stitching. This characteristic was part of her entire body of work, which Christ associates with “closing” and “hiding,” patching, combining, and mending. X-rays are also another medium of interest to her since they reflect a presence and an absence as regards to what can be seen of people’s insides. Her constant use of gauze and collage also allows her to veil images, such as objects, thus dismantling their specific meaning in order to prompt viewers to take a second look. An example of this can be seen in works such as “What’s It To You” (1982), “Who’s Next” (1987), or “Run Away! Run Away!” (1999), in which she splits a portrait of the dictator General Augusto Pinochet into two halves. Her work consistently displays the critical and political focus she embraced from the very start of her career, a characteristic that forced her to negotiate the regime’s censorship.
