A new exhibition celebrating the experiences of Chilean refugees will open at Artlink Hull’s 87 Gallery in June 2024. The forthcoming exhibition ‘Cold Junction’ brings together work by Luis Bustamante and Sebastian Bustamante and is co-curated by Tom White.
Luis Bustamante, a Chilean photographer, arrived in Hull with his wife Carmen in December 1974 as political refugees. Their son, Sebastian Bustamante, is a British-Chilean artist, curator, and researcher.
On 11 September 1973, General Augusto Pinochet overthrew Chile’s socialist president, Salvador Allende. The Pinochet regime’s campaign of terror against Allende’s supporters included kidnapping, arbitrary arrests, torture, and executions. In response, international solidarity efforts, including the Humberside branch of the Chile Solidarity Campaign, helped relocate 30 Chilean exiles to Hull, including Luis and Carmen.
While studying at the University of Hull, Luis captured the essence of his new surroundings through photography. His images offer a vivid portrayal of everyday life in mid-1970s Hull, a time of significant social and political change.
To commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Chilean refugees arriving in Hull, “Cold Junction” merges Luis’s historical photographs with Sebastian’s ongoing project “El Otoño.” This project, incorporating objects, photographs, and video, delves into Sebastian’s identity as a second-generation exile, honouring those who disappeared, those who stayed, those who left, and those striving for a better future in Chile.
The exhibition will feature a film produced by the gallery, including interviews with the artists and showing how some of the locations in the photographs have changed—or not—over the past 50 years. Artlink has been delivering creative workshops with refugee communities in Hull around themes of home and belonging. These workshops will continue throughout the exhibition and some of the work produced will be displayed at the gallery later in the summer.
E. Books will be at the launch event selling copies of the Cafe Royal Books, which feature Luis’s work from Hull in the 1970s. Luis has also kindly lent the cameras he used to take the Hull photographs.
The archives of the Humberside branch of the Chile Solidarity Campaign are held at the Hull History Centre. On Tuesday, 11th June, in the lead-up to the opening of ‘Cold Junction,’ co-curator Tom White will give a talk at the History Centre. “Venceremos!: the Humberside Chile Solidarity Campaign, fifty years on” will trace the early history of the group, its work to bring political refugees to Hull, and the challenges they faced after they arrived. From 1st June to 1st July, the History Centre Library will also be exhibiting material from the archive, selected by Tom White and archivist Sarah Pymer.
‘Cold Junction’ will launch on Friday, 14 June, 6-8pm and will run until 14 September 2024 in Artlink’s exhibition space, 87 Gallery, open Thursday-Saturday, 10am – 4:30pm .