This virtual exhibition coincides with the launch of Art of Captivity / Arte del Cautiverio (University of Toronto Press, 2020). This bilingual Spanish-English photography book explores the Pentecostal drug rehabilitation centers of Guatemala City and how those held inside these centers (often against their will) turn to art-making with found objects and innovative supplies to create a sense of meaning and purpose.

Photographed in the open air but only viewable through digital means, this exhibit marks an experiment in creativity. With images from the streets of Guatemala City, São Paulo, and Toronto, these photographs feature Art of Captivity’s images in situ, provoking a series of juxtapositions between the local and the transnational; the public and the private; and the visible and the invisible. But the most abrupt contrast here might be between this online space and the traditional exhibit. Our experience of art, not unlike the subjects of these photographs, abides in a state of enduring captivity.