Absent bodies and molten weapons: art and necropolitics in Colombia

Abstract

Although there are numerous and valuable manifestations of the relationship between memory, art, and violence in Colombia today, here we focus on two practices that gained notoriety due to their relationship with the 2016 Peace Accords. On the one hand, the Cantadoras de Pogue, who modify an Afro-descendant ritual and musical tradition of funerary nature to oppose the necropolitics dominant in their territory, particularly since 2002, when in a nearby town - Bellavista, Bojayá - took place one of the largest civilian massacres in the recent history of the country; and on the other hand, the "counter-monument" to commemorate the Peace Accords designed by the renowned artist Doris Salcedo, who invited women victims of violence to shape it. We will analyze how both practices embody the need to confront both the dominant necropolitics in Colombia and its hegemonic narratives in the public sphere.