Citation

Herrera-Vega E. Curr. Sociol. 2011; 59(6): 675-695.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0011392111419754

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article proposes a functional analysis of torture, following Luhmann's social systems theory. Its guiding hypothesis is that torture belongs to a specific type of politics, namely antagonistic politics, and that violence is an essential part of this particular presentation of politics. The article goes on to propose a view on the praxis of torture, which is observed by making a case based on two seemingly isolated situations: the first, a systematic practice in the context of the Colombian conflict: torture followed by dismembering of identified enemies. The second one is torture of presumed terrorists at Abu Ghraib, in the context of the Iraq war. The analysis identifies the common aesthetic elements in the technology of torture in order to ascertain their function within political communication. The analysis finishes by examining the response to torture from an artist's stance: Fernando Botero's paintings of both the Colombian violence and the torture in Abu Ghraib. This association introduces the observation of the uses of torture within artistic communication, in contrast with former uses within antagonistic politics. The article concludes by situating the relation between politics and aesthetics, and the conditions for their mutual dialogical interference: from politics towards aesthetics, and from aesthetics towards politics.