Photo Blog

The crimes committed against the LGBTIQ community as a result of societal prejudice are brutal and varied, and have deeply traumatised an entire generation. Their struggle for civil liberties embodies the courage to be who they are and to love whom they wish to love. The harm inflicted on them is also the legacy passed on to the next generation. The question is how they – as individuals and as a community – can come to terms with the past of their elders and the pain inflicted upon them. Display case at the Museo Casa de la Memoria (House of Memory) in Medellín, Colombia, 2023. LINK

How can one express absence and pain? – Between 1991 and 2012, 900 teachers were murdered in Colombia (source: Human Rights Observatory. Mario Novelli. War in the Classrooms. Political Violence against Trade Unions in the Education Sector in Colombia 2009). According to estimates, 91 students were murdered between 1954 and 2011 as part of the repression of the country’s student movements. – Exhibition at the Museo Casa de la Memoria (House of Memory) in Medellín, Colombia, 2023. LINK

To examine violence, we need different languages with which to tell the story. Every art form, technique and artistic expression has depicted violence in its own way. More than just a document, art reflects, takes sides, condemns and illustrates the complexity of pain and war. Art speaks when words are not enough. It moves through the realms of emotion, challenges ideas and words, subverts logic and shatters archetypes. – The Museo Casa de la Memoria (House of Memory) shows how art grapples with violence and trauma in Colombia. LINK

“In exile, two symphonies unfold simultaneously; two realities confront the same moment in time. One world collides violently with another and must learn to put down roots. In exile, the Promised Land is relocated within oneself” – In recent years, there have been major waves of emigration as a result of violence and a lack of work and prospects. Between 4 and 5 million Colombians (10 per cent of the population) now live abroad (according to Semana Magazine. Alarming figures on the exile of Colombians. 15 June 2003). Display case at the Museo Casa de la Memoria (House of Memory) in Medellín, Colombia, 2023. LINK

The conflict has destroyed thousands of lives. We often forget the small details, the everyday rituals that we can no longer carry out. We long for the wind blowing down from the mountains, for the voices of children, the taste of mango for breakfast, the smell of home, and the peaceful feeling of a family, safe and complete. In the ‘Forest of Hope’, right next to the Museo Casa de la Memoria (House of Memory), individual missing and murdered family members – the victims of decades of war and violence in Colombia – are commemorated. It is a place of mourning, but also of coming together. Medellín/COL, 2023. LINK

“Becoming a victim and indigenous power”. Pictured here is a person believed to have been murdered by paramilitaries, in front of units of the Indigenous Forces. A world that accepts only extremes is black and white. Not least, it is also the photographers who risk their lives so that the country can experience first-hand the suffering of the victims, the horrors and the intertwined roles of the various actors in this war. Through their language – photography – they tell us what really happened and what many would prefer to ignore. Photographs are passed down from one generation to the next. Exhibition at the Museo Casa de la Memoria (House of Memory) in Medellín, Colombia, 2023. LINK

Understanding these losses enables us to grasp the extent of the damage and to sense the vast universe of suffering, longing and lost love that intertwines with our projections of the past, the loneliness of the present and the challenge of building a future. Exterior view of the Museo Casa de la Memoria (House of Memory) in Medellín, Colombia, 2023. LINK

Medellín was built on convergence and segregation: tensions that have shaped a city in which, many sections of urban society have failed to benefit from Medellín’s growth and wealth. Its indigenous origins, the colonial exploitation that continues to this day, and the diverse migratory movements that have shaped the process of industrialisation, the organisation of urban growth and the dynamics of public policy – despite all efforts at integration, armed actors have consistently exploited these situations to fuel conflict and urban violence: ranging from the control of private daily life to the economic exploitation of the city. However, these tensions are always countered by concrete life experiences, struggles for their recognition and persistent, collective resistance. They have shaped the traumatic urban space as we know it today. Photo: The Museo Casa de la Memoria (House of Memory) in Medellín/COL 2023 and its neighbourhood. LINK

Whilst not denying that silence or the need to forget are also options for victims, the Museo Casa de la Memoria (House of Memory) in Medellín, Colombia, invites the public to listen and show solidarity with the pain of others, to confront the stories that are waiting to come to light, that want to be heard and processed together, in order to find a way out of what is even more painful when experienced alone. LINK