During the Istanbul Biennial, Doris Salcedo exhibited a work that was named “1550 Chairs Stacked Between Two City Buildings.” In the year 2002, Salcedo positioned 280 chairs at the Palace of Justice in Bogot “to pay homage to those killed here in an unsuccessful guerrilla coup seventeen years earlier.” In the year 2003, she filled the space between two buildings at the Istanbul Biennial with 1,550 chairs “evoking the masses of faceless migrants who underpin our globalized economy.”
After a cursory examination, Salcedo’s work raises quite a few doubts, however the artist does offer some explanations for the enigma. Despite the fact that she is employing commonplace items like chairs, the manner in which she expresses these themes is original and daring. This photograph was taken by Muammer Yanmaz.
Doris Salcedo is a well-known Colombian artist who was born in the city of Bogota in 1958. After earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Jorge Tadeo Lozano University in 1980, she continued her education and earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from New York University. After that, she went back to Bogota, which was her homeland, to take a teaching job at the National University of Colombia.
The 8th International Istanbul Biennale was the inspiration for Salcedo’s creation of this piece. The piece was placed in a public setting on purpose so that it could accommodate extensive coverage.
