Saturday 7 June – Sunday 22 June

Wednesday to Friday 3pm – 6pm
Weekends 11am – 4pm
Exhibition will be open for 30 minutes after events

Free entry

Worlds are disappearing before our eyes. Humans continue to be abducted and forcibly removed from their societies, while others simply vanish from the surface of the earth as they flee the ravages of conflict and violence. Cultures are being decimated and languages lost as ancestral knowledge and indigenous ways of life have been crushed under the weight of historical progress. Forests are being scorched and rivers running dry as consumption patterns lead to the devouring of ecologies and liveable habitats. Across the world, authoritarian regimes are emboldened, leading to the disappearance of journalists and students which points to a wider problem of the disappearance of truth. This is happening at a time when the humanitarian dream to create a world free from conflict and violence is crumbling, shadowed it seems by a vacuum of ideas concerning humanity’s future. 

How are we to confront this violence? What is the purpose of art when responding to these tragedies which are marked by a devastating absence? Can we even picture such a tremendous loss? Do we need to develop new ways of seeing and feeling the beauty and pain of the world? And how can we develop better conversations between those most deeply affected and artists and cultural producers, policy makers, and academics, so that the thresholds between appearance and disappearance can be better understood?

The Disappearance of Worlds exhibition will showcase the work of Mexican painter Chantal Meza, whose work for the past decade has confronted the violence, terror, and the complexities of disappearance in both a human and ecological context. Complementing the exhibition will be a series of public talks from world-leading authorities exploring the multiple ways disappearance occurs and the possibilities for response. 

The programme is led by the Pembroke College JCR Art Collection; Pembroke College, University of Oxford; The FOUND Project; the Centre for the Study of Violence at the University of Bath; and the Oxford Festival of the Arts, in partnership with other supporting global partners and institutions.

Programme

Find full details here

Private launch and Opening Talk: Chantal Meza in conversation with Will Gompertz 
Friday 6 June | 6pm-7pm | Pichette Auditorium, Pembroke College
Booking mandatory, tickets coming soon.

Searching for the Disappeared: The Case of Mexico
Saturday 7 June | 4pm-6pm | Pichette Auditorium, Pembroke College

The Disappearance of Humanitarianism
Friday 13 June | 6pm-7.30pm | Pichette Auditorium, Pembroke College

Technological Responses to Disappearance
Saturday 14 June | 4pm-6pm | Pichette Auditorium, Pembroke College

Justice for the Disappeared
Friday 20 June | 6pm-7.30pm | Pichette Auditorium, Pembroke College

Escape from Disappearance: The Power of Sanctuary
Saturday 21 June | 4pm-6pm | Pichette Auditorium, Pembroke College

Partners 

Pembroke College JCR Art Collection
Pembroke College, Oxford
Oxford Festival of the Arts
Centre for the Study of Violence, University of Bath
FrontierTech
The FOUND Project
Global Security Programme, University of Oxford
Violence & Transitional Justice Lab, University of Notre Dame
Human Rights Program, Universidad Iberoamericana

​About the Artist

Chantal Meza (b.1989, Mexico) is a painter based in the United Kingdom whose work practice focuses on the human as seen through various forms of disappearance. Her work is held in public and private collections around the world and over the past 10 years her paintings have featured in exhibitions and biennials in prominent Museums and Galleries in Mexico, United Kingdom, Paraguay and Germany. She has delivered international lectures and workshops at reputable universities such as Harvard University, École Normale Superiéure, Goethe Univeristät, Goldsmiths University among others as well as being commissioned publicly and privately. Her work has received the support of grants, public recognitions, and awards of prominent institutions in the cultural sector. More recently, her State of Disappearance series has been exhibited in Bristol, London and is now on display at the Chancellors Building at the University of Bath. 

Chantal has written extensively on the links between Art and Politics and featured on prominent news outlets such as the British Broadcasting Corporations (BBC) news and arts programmes. Her artwork appears in many prominent international publications and on book/magazine covers, including The Philosopher, Penguin Books, Colombia University Press, the Review of Education Pedagogy and Cultural Studies, La Jornada, Trebuchet, W&F Science & Peace, LA Review of Books among others. More recently, her “State of Disappearance” series has been exhibited in Bristol, London, Oxford and is now on permanent display at the Chancellors Building at the University of Bath.

All her work can be seen on the following link: www.chantal-meza.com ​