Camnitzer’s Leftovers reflects a period of political turmoil and violent repression in Uruguay that was symptomatic of the political situation in many Latin America countries at the time. The installation is made up from individually bandaged boxes, stained with red paint and with the word ‘Leftovers’ stencilled on them. The implication is that they contain human remains.

Uruguay, the country in which Camnitzer spent his formative years, descended into chaos during the late 1960s. A wave of labour disputes prompted President Jorge Pacheco Areco to declare a state of emergency and impose martial law. Demonstrations were brutally suppressed, and political dissidents were arrested and often tortured. At the same time, a revolutionary group called Tupamaros embarked on a guerilla campaign of bank robberies, assassinations and kidnappings (the British ambassador was one of those kidnapped). The government retaliated with mass arrests, and ‘disappearances’ at the hands of military death squads. A military coup in 1973 ended democracy in Uruguay until 1985

The dynamics of violence and control have remained important themes in Camnitzer’s work.  Born in Germany in 1937, he and his Jewish family were forced to emigrate to Uruguay in 1939 where he spent his youth and early adulthood. He settled in the United States in 1964, but has retained his Uruguayan citizenship. ‘I am now a little awkwardly placed in both worlds.’, he has said. This situation led Camnitzer to develop the concept of ‘Spanglish’ art, which he describes as a hybrid form of art embodying ‘the confluence of a language incompletely remembered with a language incompletely acquired … the merging of a deteriorating memory with the acquisition of a new reality distanced by foreignness. ‘Spanglish’ art is probably the most authentic alternative for the uprooted Latin artist.’

Luis Camnitzer was born in Germany in 1937 and grew up in Uruguay. He lives and works in New York.