Shrouds (Spanish: Sudarios) is a 2011 photographic installation by Colombian artist and social anthropologist Erika Diettes, created in Antioquia during interviews with women who had witnessed the torture or killing of their loved ones amid Colombia’s armed conflict.
Against the backdrop of one of the world’s longest internal wars, Shrouds emerged as Colombia grappled with the enduring aftermath of paramilitary and guerrilla violence. Forced disappearances and unresolved grief had become a defining national trauma, and Diettes' work responded directly to this historical moment, aiming to restore dignity to those rendered voiceless by conflict.
Central to the work is the concept of "symbolic reparation" for victims who never received proper funerary rites. Diettes focuses on the suspended state of grief—what it means to live with trauma, to be "dead in life," and to seek acknowledgment in the absence of closure. Her portraits draw attention not to the violence itself, but to its emotional aftermath.
Visually, the work consists of twenty black-and-white portraits of women, most captured with eyes closed and faces marked by anguish. These large-format images are printed on translucent silk panels, roughly seven feet tall, and suspended in sacred venues. Neutral backgrounds and unclothed figures emphasize the women’s faces, while jewelry offers subtle clues to their identity and resilience.
Technically speaking, Diettes staged the images in a controlled studio setting, using a simple lighting setup and photographing each subject at the moment of emotional recall. The use of sheer silk was deliberate, evoking both the burial shroud and the fragile persistence of memory. Her approach included a therapeutic process, often with a counselor present, positioning the photographic act within a space of care and mutual trust.
Installed in churches and cathedrals across Latin America, Europe, and Australia—beginning in Bogotá (2011) and later including Houston (2012), Buenos Aires (2012), Ballarat (2013), MOCRA (2016), and Liverpool (2019)—the work’s liturgical context shaped audience response. The Hetherington Fellowship (2017–18) and the monograph Memento Mori (2015) furthered its reach.
