Images and sounds in the archive of violence

An interview between Sylvie Lindeperg and Vicente Sánchez Biosca

Abstract

The complexity of the relationships between images and forms of violence has always been present in art, but in recent decades it has become central to disciplines such as visual studies, aesthetics and art history. In the context of the dossier "Images, testimonies and archives: the cinematographic representation of genocides, massacres and dictatorships", the analysis of images and sounds from archives is crucial to understanding this connection, requiring the overcoming of methodological challenges such as the legibility of the archive and its historical connection. Sylvie Lindeperg and Vicente Sánchez-Biosca are references in this discussion. Lindeperg, a historian and professor in Paris, investigates archives to redesign historical and political plots. In works such as "Nuit et Brouillard" and "Nuremberg: la bataille des images", she develops reading methods that reveal the historical impact of images, relating them to justice. Sánchez-Biosca, a professor of audiovisual communication in Valencia, focuses on the images of perpetrators in genocides, with a special focus on the Cambodian genocide. His research highlights the importance of exploring not only the images in the Jemeres Rojos archives, but also what they suppress. Their work is essential for image studies, particularly in Latin America, where post-repressive societies are confronting the opening of dictatorial archives and seeking new ways to address the past. This interview therefore suggests a productive exchange on the role of images in history and justice.