77: Approaching Human Disappearance Through Art with Chantal Meza & Brad Evans

In this fascinating and deeply insightful podcast, Chantal and
Brad reflect on the meaning of disappearance. Chantal comes from
Mexico where over 100,000 people have disappeared through
violence and kidnapping. Human disappearance leaves a hole, an
empty space, a void to which our human response is often one of
confusion, desperation, pain, loss, anger and even
guilt. 

Chantal is an artist working with abstract art, she is
self-taught and learnt her craft from her artisanal family and
the small Mexican community she grew up in. Chantal and Brad
discuss how art, and abstract art in particular can speak to us
when language fails us. In this wide-ranging discussion, Brad
shares his philosophical insights into violence and disappearance
in particular, saying that it is not easy to disappear somebody,
and to disappear thousands takes a huge organisational effort,
and asks what lies behind this?  

Brad also discusses the Rhonda valley and the disappearance of
jobs, of community, of a vibrant culture after the coal mines
were shut without anything to replace the jobs; in his most
recent book, he describes how these communities have disappeared
from the view of wider society in the UK. Disappearance of humans
is one thing, another form of disappearance that is finally
entering our collective awareness is the disappearance of nature
and the loss of biodiversity; how do we make sense of
that? 

Each of us has a relationship to disappearance, for some, it is a
cultural phenomenon shared by collective people due to drug
cartels, war or state terrorism that leads to many being
disappeared. For others, it can be a personal story. We hope this
podcast stirs your thinking and raises awareness of the meaning
of disappearance in our current world.

Bio

Chantal Meza is an abstract painter living and working in the
United Kingdom. Her work has been featured in exhibitions,
auctions and biennials in prominent Museums and Galleries in
Mexico, the United Kingdom, Paraguay and Germany. She has
delivered international lectures and workshops at reputable
universities such as Harvard University, École Normale
Superiéure, Goethe Univeristät, and Goldsmiths University among
others, as well as being commissioned publicly and privately. Her
work has received the support of grants, public recognition and
awards of prominent institutions in the cultural sector. More
recently, her first edited volume “State of Disappearance” was
published by McGill Queens University Press. 

Professor Brad Evans is a political philosopher, critical
theorist, and writer, who specializes in the problem of violence.
He is the author of over 20 books and edited volumes, including
most recently State of Disappearance (with Chantal Meza, McGill
Queens University Press: 2023) & Ecce Humanitas: Beholding
the Pain of Humanity (Columbia University Press, 2020). He
previously led a dedicated columns/series on violence in both the
New York Times and the Los Angeles Review of Books. Brad
currently serves as Chair of Political Violence and Aesthetics at
the University of Bath, United Kingdom, where is he the founder
and director of the Centre for the Study of Violence. His latest
book How Black Was My Valley: Poverty and Abandonment in a
Post-Industrial Heartland will soon be published by
Repeater/Penguin Random House in April 2024.