Inauguration of On the ESMA – Screenings on the Wall

The exhibition “On the ESMA – Screenings on the Wall” was inaugurated on Saturday, December 10th, as a tribute to survivor Victor Basterra, who was able to extract from ESMA visual documents that proved in court its role as a clandestine center.

Victor Melchor Basterra says that these photos are the beginning of a story that continued to write itself as time went by. “They are a part of a handful I was able to grab while [working] in the [photography] lab at ESMA in 1983,” he said to the judges of the 5th Federal Oral Court during the second trial. “They were going to be burned. In a moment when they weren’t looking, I stuck my hand inside a burlap bag with a bunch of negatives and I found myself amongst the photographs. I rolled up the negatives and as time went by I was able to slowly take them out of ESMA. Once I finally had the courage to take the first ones, I hid them in my underwear. Luckily they didn’t search me.” They were negatives of photos of detained-disappeared taken by the Navy during torture sessions, as well as print copies of photos of ESMA military officers.

Basterra presented the images to the CONADEP and the courts in 1984. They are the only visual documents that exist about the function of this clandestine center; they are judicial evidence and enabled the early recognition of the perpetrators. Basterra remained kidnapped at the ESMA Clandestine Center between August 10, 1979 and December 3, 1983, and was subject to periodic checks until July 1984. After the first few months in Capucha, he was forced to perform tasks in the printing house located in the basement. Previously employed as a graphic designer, his skills were a useful survival method that could be rendered useless at any moment.

Other photographers who participated in the inauguration were Lucila Quieto, Monica Hasenberg, Eduardo Longoni and Marcelo Brodsky.