DORIS SALCEDO
b. 1958, ColombiaBorn in Bogota, Colombia, Doris Salcedo’s practice is concerned with experiences of migration, memory and the politics of cultural displacement. Shibboleth was commissioned for the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern in 2007 and was the first to intervene directly with the physical container of the space. A 167 metre-long crack was opened up in the floor of the museum, representing the threshold of separation. The division of space was also a metaphor for the experiences of migrants who faced racial and territorial discrimination.
Working through installation and sculpture, Salcedo’s works are often poetic analogies of absence and opposition. The architectural dimensions of her work are not monuments as such but a material testament to collective memory. Her use of furniture, clothing and hair is evocative of the body and its immateriality. Her large scale installations have appeared around the world, including Istanbul, Turin and her native Colombia.
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