Núñez: exculturas | Guillermo Núñez

Núñez: exculturas is a facsimile reprint of the artist’s book that accompanied -as a catalog- the exhibition of Guillermo Núñez, at the Gallery of the French Institute of Culture, under the name Núñez-Printuras-Exculturas, inaugurated on the afternoon of Wednesday, March 18, 1975. There were there: bird cages, sieves, nets, grills, roses, mousetraps, reproductions of paintings: Delacroix leading the people, a Guernica stolen from Picasso, torn canvases, blue hands, the Gioconda and Violeta Parra smiling forever, old shoes, mirrors to reflect and sink into, false portraits, tied breads, tied cages, tied names, tied Violeta Parra and a necktie. … a simple striped tie of three colors: blue, white and red, bought in New York, knotted and hung upside down on a steel surface.

On the morning of the following day, the exhibition was closed by the military and the artist was imprisoned again, and at the end of July, expelled from Chile, being declared “dangerous for National Security”. On each of its pages, his passport was stamped with a stamp: VALID ONLY FOR LEAVING THE COUNTRY.

Text by Guillermo Núñez (1930-2024)