‘400 Women’: artists protest rape and murder of thousands of Mexican women

Summary of story from Bidisha, August 8, 2011

Artist Tamsyn Challenger is showing her highly acclaimed installation art show ‘400 Women’ (see WVoN story) at the Edinburgh Art Festival from August 4 until September 4.

‘400 Women’ is a response to the brutal murder and rape of thousands of women in the Mexican town of Ciudad Juarez and, more generally, to gender violence across the globe.

It features the work of nearly 200 artists from around the world, each one representing one of the murdered women.

Explanations for the murders, which continue to be committed, range from serial killers to organ fielding, the use of women as prizes for drug cartels and domestic violence. A more sinister reason given is so-called sexual violence tourism.

In August 2006 the Mexican federal government dropped its investigations into the murders, concluding that no federal laws had been violated.

The continued disappearance of women in Mexico – and murder of 300 in 2010 – and elsewhere in Latin America demonstrates an entire culture’s disregard for the rights of women as human beings.