Taking into account theoretical references on the relationship between art, violence and memory, on one hand and, on participatory art, on the other, this article reflects on the exhibition Where are the missing? Absences that interpellate, organized by the National Center for Historical Memory and exhibited during the second quarter of 2014 in various spaces. Methodologically the show is analyzed from two categories: participatory art and artistic practices; the first ones closely linked to the community and the second ones focused on the production of “work” linked to the name of an artist. Although the purposes and, sometimes, the procedures used by both practices are similar, both their results and the relationship with the audience and the communities are qualitatively different, as are the “languages” present in each practice: the first ones concentrated on the faces of the missing, while the seconds ones, explores the trails of forced disappearance.