Learning how to conjure fear: stories of the process Recording in the memory with the Mothers of False Positives (Madres de Falsos Positivos - Mafapo)

Abstract

Starting from autobiographical stories framed in a systematization of experiences, an educational reflection is presented concerning the art and historical memory training project titled Recording in the memory with the Mothers of False Positives (Madres de Falsos Positivos - Mafapo). The narrator unveils how, in the transit of the experience, fears of death and oblivion are faced, weaving close relationships between the participants of the experience in five stories to, finally, review in the corollary the relationship betweenart, education and historical memory. The first section is about the beginning of the project in relation with the play From afar they seem like flies identifying the actors and the motivations. The second section shares a closer look to Mafapo, which frames historically the fight that mobilizes these mothers. Searching to resignify the memories recounted, the third section focuses in bringing the voice of the mothers during the encounters every Wednesday in the printmaking workshop, allowing for the analysis to be focused in the difference between an educational activity in the arts and an artistic activity during the experience, the role of photography as a didactic device and the degree of relation, meaning and significance in creation. Finally, the way in which the development of the project transcends the borders of the workshop and is linked to the university culture during the national strike of  2019 and ends with the graduation of the participants is recounted.