Presentation of the book “They count: Artistic representations of violence in the Basque Country from the gender perspective”

The book “They count: Artistic representations of violence in the Basque Country from the gender perspective”, written by Maria Pilar Rodríguez (researcher in the University of Deusto and the Gender Interdisciplinary Research Platform) and Cristina Ortiz Ceberio has been published.

The book analyses the work of Basque narrators and filmmakers on terrorist violence in the Basque Country in a study including affects and emotions as part of the social and political environment. The analysed artists (Laura Mintegi, Mariasun Landa, Arantxa Urretabizkaia, Dolores González Katarain, Ana Díez, Helena Taberna, Luisa Etxenike, Gabriela Ybarra, Edurne Portela, Katixa Agirre, Aixa de la Cruz and Estela Baz) show different ways of making visible the injustice caused by the experience of violence.

Their productions have in common the prosecution of terrorist violence, based on the emotional cost that this entailed and the disastrous imprint on the emotional ties that was their legacy. These works explore the impact of violence in multiple affective dimensions and show its devastating effects from different angles. They imply a necessary exploration of our past from a gender perspective and with an ethical perspective.