Doris Salcedo’s work is born from her position as witness to more than half a century of civil war in Colombia. Through sculpture, large-scale installations and public interventions, the artist addresses the complex emotional and psychological effects of the brutalities of war and the traumatic impact of systemic forms of violence, such as displacement, disappearances and rape.

Salcedo relies on that which remains to circumscribe politically induced absence, drawing on literary sources such as Jorge Luis Borges and Paul Celan. Since the late 1980s, the artist has incorporated into her work quotidian domestic objects, such as furniture and clothing – at times filling them with cement as if to accentuate a permanent loss of function.

The process of remaking is important in Salcedo’s recent work, which responds materially to the testimonial injustice suffered by all victims of conflicts by interrogating the processes of loss, mourning and healing – and by giving body to the voices that cannot be heard.

Studio is curated by Sheena Wagstaff, Creative advisor of Frieze Masters and former Chair of Modern and Contemporary Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and Chief Curator of Tate Modern. The works are on view at Stand C11 from 9-13 October 2024.