Curatorship for meaning making: contributions towards symbolic reparation at the Museum of Memory of Colombia

ABSTRACT

This article examines via case study research the ways in which diverse actors made sense and gave meaning to an exhibition related to armed conflict and reparation in Colombia. Voces para transformar a Colombia (Voices for the Transformation of Colombia, 2018) was a temporary, ‘living museum’ which presented the Museum of Memorýs storyline (a national museum still in planning) to the public. This museum was recently ordered by the Law for Victims and Land Restitution (2011) to contribute to the symbolic reparation of the victims of the country's armed conflict. We contend that contributions towards measures of satisfaction and non-repetition, two criteria prescribed by this law, may be located both in the creation of curatorial discourses, and also in the way in which different groups become meaning makers themselves by appropriating these discourses for their own purposes. By analysing the participation of victims during the process of making the exhibition and visitor (including victims’) reactions to it, we will highlight how curatorship contributes to measures of reparation, and also consider its limits in this regard.

KEYWORDS:

• Symbolic reparations
• human rights museums
• activism
• non-repetition
• National Center for Historical Memory
• Museum of Memory of Colombia

Acknowledgments

The study on the visitor's experience was funded by the United States Agency for International Development. The authors wish to acknowledge the authors of this study, especially Silvia Monroy and Delvi Gómez, as well as the contributions to the educational strategy made by Jenifer Álvarez, Diana Rodríguez, Pedro Betancur, Juan Pérez and Jorge Bautista.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Cristina Lleras is a Colombian independent curator and lecturer. She obtained her PhD in Museum Studies at the University of Leicester (2011). She was the Visual Arts Manager for the District Institute of the Arts (2012–2013) in Bogotá, and Art and History Curator at the National Museum of Colombia (2008–2012). She also collaborated with the country's National Commission for Reparation and Reconciliation in curatorial work and led the Museology Department at the Museum of Memory of Colombia (2016–2018).

Sofía Natalia González-Ayala is a researcher and curator at the Museum of Memory of Colombia at the National Center for Historical Memory. She obtained her Ph.D. in Social Anthropology with Visual Media at the University of Manchester, UK (2016). She previously worked at the National Museum of Colombia (2008–2011) as assistant researcher and curator.

Juliana Botero-Mejía is a researcher and curator at the Museum of Memory of Colombia at the National Center for Historical Memory. She has an MA in Social Anthropology and Ethnology from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France (2012). She worked at the National Museum of Colombia (2007–2008, 2011–2012) as assistant researcher and curator, and at the National Library of Colombia (2014–2016) as a researcher.

Claudia Marcela Velandia is a researcher and curator at the Museum of Memory of Colombia at the National Center for Historical Memory (since 2017). She has a BA in History and a second BA in Political Science from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia (2016).

ORCID

Cristina Lleras http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5022-8247

Sofía Natalia González-Ayala http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9340-7421

Juliana Botero-Mejía http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2922-7770

Claudia Marcela Velandia http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3729-0780

Notes

1 Law 1448 of 2011, article 146.

2 Law 1448 of 2011, article 148.

3 Law 1448 states that for the purpose of establishing the rights to truth, justice and reparation, and the guarantee of non-repetition, victims are those individuals or collectives who suffered harm as a consequence of infringement of Human Rights (articles 1 and 3) in events that occurred after the 1st of January of 1985. Nevertheless, paragraph 4 of article 3 clarifies that people who have been victimized before that date have the right to truth and measures of symbolic reparation, as well as guarantees of non-repetition. This means that the Museum as a measure of symbolic reparations extends to all conflict victims.

4 Law 1448 of 2011, article 148.

5 The CNMH supported local memory initiatives in different territories, founded by victim's organizations, well before the law. The MMHC, on the other hand, has a societal scope and a responsibility of involving different actors.

6 Law 1448 of 2011, article 141.

7 Law 1448 of 2011, articles 142–145.