THE VISUAL TRANSGRESSION IN THE IMAGE OF MS. WEIGEL

This article is the analysis of a photograph released by the ELN guerrillas as proof that two of the seven foreign hostages, kidnapped at the Indian ruins "The Lost City" in the Sierra Nevada mountains (Colombia) on September 12, 2003, were alive. In this image, the German hostage Ms. Reinhilt Weigel is smiling, carrying an assault rifle AK-47, turning itself in what the author calls a transitory and transgressive image. This characterization is not only made by the content of the image but also by the disruption that it conceals in the apparent constituted sense of the femininity. The discussion that the author develops is the convergence of visual studies and gender issues, showing the different connections between image and body in the Colombian context in which different institutional forms use femininity as a signi-cant. The article assumes the image not as a mere apparition or representation but as performance of identity looking through the image-body to establish an explanation that can go beyond a mere controversy of opinions to therefore enlighten the taboo of this entity.