Event Details
Marina Echeverria - whose doll is part of this collective banner - and Professor Terri Scott, Ulster University, engaging with the textile. (Photo: Breege Doherty) |
| Exhibition launch and online seminar: | Con-textualising Memory / Con-textualizando la memoria |
| Description: | In 2020, using the framework of memorisalition process with exiled communities, the Colombian Truth Commission in the UK/Ireland and Conflict Textiles hosted workshops using the language of textiles. In 2021, building on this process, and extending the partnership to include Transitional Justice Institute, Ulster University a series of three workshops Con-textualizando la memoria / Contextualising memory were facilitated as part of the Commission support spaces in the UK and Ireland. This collective work brought together victims and survivors who expressed via textile language their memories, actions of resilience, struggle in exile and contribution to the truth and memory, culminating in a collective textile Con-textualizando la memoria / Contextualising memory outcome banner.
This banner was unveiled at Conflict Textiles collection: Magee Campus Library, Ulster University
on International Human Rights Day, 10th December coinciding with the Northern Ireland Human Rights Festival 2021 (3rd - 10th December). Collaborating organisations included CTC, TJI and Conflict Textiles (stated above) with the support of the John Hume & Thomas P. O'Neill Chair in Peace based at the International Conflict Research Institute (INCORE) at Ulster University. The event was committed to promoting a dialogue on truth and memory (Recognition) as victims’ rights through textile language.
The unveiling commenced at 12noon and the banner will be on display from 10th December 2021 -27th January 2022.
This was followed by an online seminar and onsite workshop which ran concurrently from 2 - 3.30pm Northern Ireland; 9 - 10.30am Colombia.
a) Seminar: “Sharing experiences of memory (Recognition) and truth in post-conflict times: Colombia and Northern Ireland”. Simultaneous translation English-Spanish. Seminar recording
This seminar was a dialogue with the Colombian Truth Commissioner, Dr. Carlos Martín Beristain and academics on truth and memory as victims’ rights within the context of the Northern Ireland and Colombia peace processes
Participants:
-Dr Carlos M. Beristain. Commissioner.
-Dr Lauren Dempster, Lecturer, Queen's University Belfast (QUB).
-Roberta Bacic, Conflict Textiles.curator
-Professor Brandon Hamber, Hume O’Neill Chair, INCORE.
-Peter Drury, Representative of the Colombian Truth Commission – UK/Ireland.
-Chair: Professor Siobhan Wills, Director of the Transitional Justice Institute.
b) "Hands on" workshop facilitated by Conflict Textiles Fabric Artist, Deborah Stockdale & Breege Doherty Assistant Curator. The workshop incorporated a display of textiles (see 'Textiles Displayed' section below).
A short film (6.29m) Con-textualising Memory / Con-Textualizando la memoria documents the core elements of the overall event.
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| Commissioned by: | Colombian Truth Commission support groups, UK/Ireland, Transitional Justice Inst. UU |
| Date(s): | 10th December 2021 - 10th December 2021 |
| Venue: | Ulster University, Magee Campus Library
Northland Road Derry-Londonderry. County Londonderry BT48 7JL |
| Curator: | Roberta Bacic and Conflict Textiles team |
| Facilitator: | Lina Malagón, Transitional Justice Institute, School of Law, Ulster University |
| Outcome: | This collaborative event marking International Human Rights Day 2021 focused on memory (Recognition) and truth in post-conflict times within the context of the Colombia and Northern Ireland peace processes. Combining the unveiling of the collective textile with workshops and an online seminar signified the weaving together of the ‘hands on’ element, lived experiences and academic discourse. It also affirmed the power of textile language in conveying what the survivors of the conflict in Colombia could not describe in words.
Attendees (both online and in person) represented a broad spectrum of people who were involved in different capacities within this overall initiative which had its genesis in the three workshops “Con-textualizando la memoria / Contextualising memory” (September 2021). Their participation in this culmination event illustrates the connection between the textile language of ‘hands on’ workshops and academic discourse and how one feeds the other.
The key elements of the event are documented in a short film.
The arpillera doll images are featured in an e book (CEV Uk & Irlanda, 2022) Exilio y Memoria: Voces de la Colombia fuera de Colombia
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| Documents: |
• Ulster University press release, 10 Dec 2021 - view
• Colombian Truth Commission press release - view
• Photo gallery: 'hands on' workshop, Dec 2021 - view
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