Souvenir combines image and text to communicate the story of the 1995 military factory explosion in Río Tercero, Argentina. Baez explains that while “the executive branch declares it was an accident, but the warehouses are intentionally blown-up in order to hide pieces of evidence of arms trafficking to Croatia and Ecuador in which the president Carlos Menem was involved.” Seven people lost their lives because of the explosion, and the city was covered with rubble and metal shards that people collected and kept as grim souvenirs of the disaster. Throughout Baez’s work, the images of the souvenirs themselves sit ominously next to the written text, ever-reminding the reader of the persistent materiality and impact of government militarism and imperialism.
