About the Installation
"See yourself in the 43." Our art installation asks the visitor to engage in the complex issues of the 43 students with both their heads and hearts.
2015 Debut
"Remember the 43 Students" was created during the fall of 2015, one year after the Sept. 26, 2014 atrocity. The installation was conceived by Stephen Lee with fabrication help from Jerry Enos and Gary Sloan at Santa Clara University. Andres Solis, Sandra Milena Goméz, and Donna Conwell provided important creative input.
The installation was the first of several events at Santa Clara University that explored the 43 tragedy. The highlight of those events was the music and modern dance production XLIII: A Contemporary Requiem, a wonderful coproduction of Montalvo Arts Center and Santa Clara University's College of Arts and Sciences.
The installation served as the opening event of Santa Clara University's (in)humanity salon in 2015.
The installation, situated outside along a major walkway on the SCU campus, took a beating from torrential rains that pounded the campus the first week of 2016.
Sept. 2016 Installation
As the second anniversary of the forced disappearances neared in September 2016, Lee and his team redeployed the 43 Silhouettes installation on the SCU campus. This second installation was marred by political violence. Cameras captured students defacing the figures and using them as tackling dummies. At the same time, political violence targeted at SCU's LGBTQ community extended into a residence hall. The violence led to a year of social reckoning and conversations on campus that culminated in Welcome to Claradise, a "devised theatre" production inspired by Anna Deveare Smith's campus residency.
Sept. 2021 Installation at DSU
The "43" installation moved to St. George, Utah in September 2021 for its third public display. The installation, deployed in buildings across the DSU campus, became an important social justice statement.
The College of Humanities and Social Sciences collaborated with DSU's Institute of Politics, the College of the Arts, and several student clubs.
The highlights of the 2021 installation included:
• prayers of the faithful honoring the 43 at St. George Catholic Church
• a candlelight vigil on the Encampment Mall honoring the missing students
• a public conversation with journalist John Gibler that drew over 200 attendees.
Sept. 2022 Installation at Utah Tech
"Remember the 43 Students" returned to the Utah Tech campus from Sept. 16 to Sept. 30, 2022. The installation was deployed on the second floor of the Holland Centennial Commons. Other activities associated with this year's installation include:
- Artist Jan Nimmo's collection of portraits of the 43 students were displayed in the Eccles art building from Sept. 16- Sept. 30, 2022.
- The opening ceremony for the installations took place on Thursday, Sept. 15 at 4 PM in the Eccles Fine Arts Building lobby.
- Journalists Anayansi Diaz-Cortes (Reveal Investigations) and Kate Doyle (National Security Archive) spoke on campus Sept. 26, 2022 at 4 PM in the Zion Room (Holland Centennial Commons 537). Diaz-Cortes and Doyle are the reporters responsible for the exceptional podcast and radio program After Ayotzinapa. The event was open to the public.
(Image credit: Reveal News)
Sept. 2023 Installation at Utah Tech
"Remember the 43 Students" returned to the Utah Tech campus from Sept. 15 to Oct. 6, 2023. The "43 Silhouettes" installation was deployed on the second floor of the Holland Centennial Commons.
Artist Jan Nimmo's collection of portraits of the 43 students were displayed in the Eccles art building from Sept. 15 to Oct. 6, 2023.
The 2023 engagement began with an opening ceremony on Monday, Sept. 18 at 3 PM in the Eccles Fine Arts Building lobby.
MIT historian Atanalís Padilla spoke on campus Sept. 26, 2022 at 12 PM in the Zion Room (Holland Centennial Commons 537). Padilla has written and spoken extensively about the issues of the 43, including about the rural teachers' college system in Mexico. The 43 students attended the teachers' college in Ayotzinapa. Her newest book, Unintended Lessons of Revolution: Student Teachers and Political Radicalism in Twentieth-Century Mexico, traces the history of Mexico’s rural normales, training schools for teachers.