Carlos Motta
SOA: Black and White Tales

Hartford, CT—March 20, 2006—Real Art Ways will present artist Carlos Motta’s exhibition SOA: Black and White Tales from April 20 through May 14, 2006. Motta uses The School of the Americas, central since 1946 to the US military presence in Latin America, as subject matter. Motta will talk about his work at 5:30pm on Thursday, April 20, followed by an opening reception, part of Real Art Ways’ monthly “Creative Cocktail Hour,” from 6 to 9pm. Real Art Ways is located at 56 Arbor Street in the Parkville neighborhood of Hartford. Admission to the Creative Cocktail Hour is $8 (free for Real Art Ways Members). For more information visit www.realartways.org or call 860.232.1006.

In 1946, The School of the Americas was established in Panama as the Latin American Training Center - Ground Division. It was renamed the US Army School of the Americas in 1963. The SOA relocated to Fort Benning, GA in 1984 following the signing of the Panama Canal Treaty.

Run by the U.S. military, the school trained Latin American soldiers employed during multiple conflicts throughout the region, including in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Peru. The School closed temporarily in 2000 in the wake of numerous accusations of human rights violations. In 2001 the school re-opened as “The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.” Since then, the school has continued to instruct Latin American military in counterinsurgency techniques and warfare tactics.

SOA: Black and White Tales investigates the construction of an ideology of power and domination through rhetorical tactics, field education and economic dependence. The project is composed of various audio tracks of reenacted and subtly altered speeches and testimonies by the school’s officials; a series of posters of text quotations that reveal the tight relationship between military, political and moral/religious rhetoric; a series of photo-paintings of appropriated historical photographs that depict civilians casualties in which graduates of the school were involved; reproductions of historical images such as the infamous “white hand” trace of the death squads in El Salvador; and informational material about the school, its mission and the various activist groups which are attempting through non-violent demonstrations to shut down the school again, this time permanently.

Carlos Motta received a Masters of Fine Arts at the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College in 2003. Motta has attended the prestigious Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program, and taught photography at the Parsons School of Design in New York as well the International Center of Photography in New York. In addition to teaching, Motta has won many awards for his work including the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Workspace Program (2004), Rhodes Family Award for Exceptional Achievement in Photography (2001), and the Center for Book Arts Workspace Grant for Emerging Artists (2005).

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