Museum visit

Although it has been a week and a half since I went there, I am still thinking a lot about my trip to El Museo del Bario. When I went with Lindsey, Tom, and Ding we saw a installation about the "Disappeared" in Latin America. This word describes the phenonmenon whereby people disappear without a trace and are never found or heard from again. It is believed that some of these people are the victims of dictatorial regimes and military occupations.
The art expressions depicted images of people who had disappeared, as well as visual representations of loss. Strangely, the work that most moved me was the story behind the 350 photographs of that many graffiti images of bikes. Each stenciled bike that was pictured represents a person who was disappeared-- as described in the installation write-up, often the first indication that a friend or loved-one had been disappeared was the presence of his or her bike, abandoned at the time of disappearance. This struck me because of the very physical nature of the absence. I do not know any of the people whose lives were commemorated, but I can viscerally imagine how I would feel to see the bike of someone I love and realize that they are never returning.