Remember Me: Voices of the Silenced in Colombia: Art Exhibition

This exhibition is created by people who are on the front lines of violence in Colombia. The exhibition is being circulated by Witness for Peace Northwest  in collaboration with Lutheran World Relief.

“The artists are families and friends of those who lost their lives in the violence. Despite the fact that much of the violence has been fueled by billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars sent to the Colombian military over the past decade, few people in the United States know much about it.” from the brochure

Image from book about young boy who was forced into military under false pretenses

detail of Quilt created by families of disappeared

Deatil of installation with hundreds of photographs of disappeared and missing

The "game" is to use the wooden scoop to shovel the photographs in the box

Small cut out photographs of families of disappeared

Sculpture showing children pulled into the process of violence

Paintings by children about the violence

Some of the products using palm oil, a crop that is devestating the jungle

The exhibition had the following categories: The Disappeared, the Displaced, the War and Women, Massacres and the Cruelty of War, A precious Resource at Risk (Children), The War and Children, Silencing the Voices of Change, Assassinated Leaders and Plan Columbia. It concluded with an analysis of Plan Columbia and the sources of violence, as mentioned above in the multi billion dollar “drug war” and other devastating actions like the free trade agreements. There is  currently a new Colombia Free Trade agreement on the table that will further “put corporate profits ahead of people and the environment” . Why is this so familiar. But we can at least be educated and resist here in the US. The small farmers and Afro Colombian communities are losing their land and extra judicial killings are carried on with impunity.

While the artists who created the art works in this exhibition are children and adults who are largely working directly from their emotions with only minimal training, famous artists like Fernand Botero have also addressed the same issue as in his painting “Massacre” Also Beehive Collective has made an amazing print about the Plan Colombia. I discuss both of these artists in my book Art and Politics Now, which you can read about on this very website.