Raúl Zurita studied Civil Engineering at the Universidad Federico Santa María in Valparaíso. During the military dictatorship of 1973, he was imprisoned, which profoundly marked his life and work. At the end of the 70s, he co-founded the Colectivo de Acciones de Arte (CADA), a resistance group against the Chilean military dictatorship that occupied public spaces. His work references Chile’s painful historical past and the beauty of its landscapes. Despite the torment and fear, his works reveal the hope and beauty that lie beyond conflict and uncertainty. In 1982, he wrote 15 phrases from the poem “La Vida Nueva” across the New York sky, written out by small planes. And in 1993, using a backhoe, he permanently drew the phrase “ni pena ni miedo” (“neither sorrow nor fear”) into the Atacama Desert. He lives in Chile and is considered one of Latin America’s most celebrated and controversial poets.
Colección FEMSA has an image bank of the works that comprise it—a resource intended for researchers, publishers, and art institutions. The Collection is open to lending requests for shows in Mexico and other countries.
If you need a high-resolution image or would like to request a work on-loan, please send an email to coleccionfemsa@difusion.femsa.com