Absence and Repair: Encounters between the Photographic Archive of the United Fruit Company and Banana Craze’s Database of Contemporary Art of the Americas
Blanca Serrano Ortiz de Solórzano and Juanita Solano Roa
This article examines the interplay between the United Fruit Company's (UFC) photographic archive and the contemporary art archive of the digital humanities project Banana Craze. Through an analysis of UFC's archival photographs, it explores the company's neocolonial practices and the visual erasure of the hardships faced by local workers. Drawing on Ariella Azoulay's concept of “civil imagination” and Saidiya Hartman's “critical fabulation,” the article proposes contemporary art as a method of archival repair. By juxtaposing historical images with modern artworks from Banana Craze—including works by Ana Núñez, Andrea Chung, Elkin Calderón, and Leandro Katz—it demonstrates how art can address historical omissions and foster new understandings of past injustices.
Other articles in this issue:
Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte Issues
Volume 88 (2025)
Volume 87 (2024)
Volume 86 (2023)
Volume 85 (2022)
Volume 84 (2021)
Volume 83 (2020)
Volume 82 (2019)
Volume 81 (2018)
Volume 80 (2017)
Volume 79 (2016)
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