The 2000’s decade has been considered one of the most critical years in the Colombian conflict. The country has been immersed in struggle between the government, the national army, the paramilitary and the guerrilla movement. Torture, massacres and kidnappings have been part of their daily practices. In borderline areas such as El Chocó, Putumayo, Cauca, the fighting has been more intense, displacing the afro Colombian communities, first nations and farmers from their lands. Their land is being redistributed amidst the invisibility of the victims’ rights. The main issue is that in terms of inhabited lands it is impossible to keep track of any changes in ownership.

In a centralized country, divided by classes and racism, the zones in conflict, which are less white and less developed don’t have strong presence in the collective imaginary. To offset or to counteract this omission we have to design an iconographic niche in order to help the collective imaginary to create new systems of references and resistance. Within this complex social context the work of artists included in this talk propose new perspectives to understand this conflict.

Artists: Miguel Angel Rojas, José Alejandro Restrepo, Jesús Abad Colorado, Oscar Muñoz, Stephen Ferry, María Elvira Escallón, Johanna Calle, Alberto Baraya, Rafael Ortiz, Juan Fernado Herrán.