Alcira Soust Scaffo

Based on extensive documentary research and the recovery of part of her personal archive (action poems, translations of French poetry and graphic poems) and a set of testimonies, the catalog emphasizes the relationship between the political militancy and visual poetry of the remarkable poet and activist Alcira Soust Scaffo (Uruguay 1924-1997), who lived in Mexico between 1950 and 1980, when she returned to Uruguay. "Alcira Soust was a muse and mythical figure for several generations of young people, activists and artists in the 1960's, 1970's and 1980's. Roberto Bolaño, a personal friend of the poet and who belonged to the avant-garde group the Infrarrealists, established the myth about Alcira in two of his novels, The Savage Detectives and Amulet, the latter being dedicated to her." (HKB Translation) --Page 239. However, the catalog does not seek to inquire into the myth, but instead reconstructs the worlds of Soust, along with her artistic, political, Latin American and anti-imperialist ideology, and the way in which these intermingled with her personal life.