Fragments of a Relocation: The Insistence of Images

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29340/en.v5n9.227

Keywords:

“the obtuse”, images, visual practices, ethnography, collections

Abstract

The extraction and relocation of the pre-Hispanic monolith known as “Tlaloc” from San Miguel Coatlinchan to the National Museum of Anthropology (Museo Nacional de Antropología) in 1964 were captured through the production, circulation, arrangement, and storage of different types of images. These images have been organized using different processes of montage that sought to somehow fix the event and, which are therefore deeply political. Following Roland Barthes’ invitation to “listen to” images to access their “obtuse sense”, I resort to ethnography as a way of addressing the resonances and the affective ties that cannot be contained within the edges of their frames and insist on interrupting any effort towards their logical and temporal arrangement.

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Author Biography

  • Sandra Rozental, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana - Cuajimalpa

    Sandra Rozental She holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from New York University, with a Masters in Latin American Studies from Georgetown University. She has published articles and chapters on social relations around heritage, collections and museums in Mexico. The book she co-edited with Miruna Achim and Susan Deans-Smith, Museum Matters: Making and Unmaking Mexico's National Collectionswas published in 2021 (University of Arizona Press). Co-directed with Jesse Lerner the feature film The missing stone (2013).

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Published

2022-03-21

How to Cite

Fragments of a Relocation: The Insistence of Images. (2022). Encartes, 5(9), 86-115. https://doi.org/10.29340/en.v5n9.227