The space of the absent

Abstract

During the feminist march on March 8, 2019 in Santiago, Chile, a group of women carried out an intervention called “Espacio de las ausentes” (Space of the absent) in which the arrangement of the bodies showed and stressed the presence of the absent bodies from the demonstration, particularly of the women murdered by patriarchal violence. The phrase is flashy and could sound like an oxymoron. How can a space be filled by absent subjects? How can absent subjects appear? In this text we ask ourselves about the affective implications that this type of use of public space has on bodies and collectivities. Analysing a photography took at the demonstration, we argue that the space that emerges from the co-presence of the bodies, present and absent, and of materialities, is one that is more porous to a multiple capacity to affect and be affected that recognises and makes present situations of exclusion and oppression.