Landscapes of Memory at the End of the Afternoon

Abstract

This article is part of the work conducted in a social and artistic research and agency program initiated in 2018 and ending in 2023. The program seeks to contribute to peacebuilding by generating and strengthening political and creative capacities in territories affected by recent armed conflict in Colombia. It is co-authored by two individuals whose backgrounds and experiences have
led them to work together in complementary fields: the study and agency of territorial peace and research-creation. At the core of the methodological conception of the process lies action research, translated into co-creative actions through which social researchers and academically trained artists, in dialogue with members of communities in six territories across three departments of Colombia, have designed and undertaken pathways for peacebuilding in situated contexts. The immersion of the work teams in the territories, the informal conversations in the evenings and nights, as well as the journeys through places laden with histories of conflicts and violence pushed to unthinkable limits, permeate subjectivities, provoke different emotional balances, and
build aesthetic experiences that go beyond the formalities of the most conventional academic productions. Perhaps, akin to the ouroboros, the article captures present moments that are devoured by more powerful forces. It begins with two reflections necessary to frame the subsequent literary account of situations in which individuals become characters, enabling an aesthetic and political approach to collective and individual modes of inhabiting territories amidst ruptures and continuities inherent to transitions. It was written based on field notes taken by the authors and includes a final consideration
on research through art.