Abstract
The ordeal was a medieval trial to which someone accused of a crime or moral failing was subjected in order to prove their innocence. The person would undergo physical torture—holding hot irons, jumping into fire, or remaining in water for extended periods—and was considered absolved by God if they survived or emerged relatively unharmed. It is with this metaphor that Lorenzo Jaramillo interpreted his illness, and the perspective Álvaro Restrepo chose to adopt in creating this work as a tribute. With it, Restrepo seeks for “humanity to recover compassion, and to stop acting with the stigmatization directed at people with AIDS, treating them as if they had the plague.”
Citation
Restrepo, Álvaro. 1995. 'Ordalía: el fin del cuerpo [Ordeal: The End of the Body]'. Dispossessions in the Americas. https://staging.dia.upenn.edu/en/art/ACOL015/
