Features

November 2008

New Exhibition Confronts Displacement in Colombia

Victims' testimonies, powerful images and reconstructed routes of exile are some of the offerings of "Destierro y Reparación" ("Displacement and Reparations"), an exhibition presented by Antioquia Museum, in Medellín, Colombia. The exhibition aims to raise awareness of forced displacement in Colombia, and, ultimately, to urge viewers to demand that the government take the steps necessary to effectively address the crisis.

More than 3 million people have been displaced as a result of Colombia's armed conflict, which has raged for close to fifty years among guerilla groups, paramilitary groups and the government. According to the NGO Consultoría para los Derechos Humanos y el Desplazamiento (CODHES), Colombia has 632 displaced people for every 100,000 inhabitants, making it the country with the second highest number of internally displaced persons in the world after Sudan.

"Destierro y Reparación," supported in part by ICTJ, invites visitors to experience the drama of exile from the victim's perspective. "The ‘Destierro y Reparación' project brings the possibility to understand and feel that displacement is a humanitarian crisis, because each victim is a human being," said Lucía Gonzalez, director of the Museum. "To know the problem is an achievement, but to recognize it with the aim of taking charge of it and realizing that it is relevant to everyone, is the intention."

Visitors to the exhibition will learn about emblematic displacement cases in Colombia, such as the case of the Afro-Colombian people of Bojayá, Chocó; the indigenous people of La Guajira; the rural communities in the east of Antioquia; and the urban dwellers in the neighborhoods of Medellín.

Academic seminars, concerts and educational programs complement the exhibition, which is scheduled to run between September 15 and November 16. In 2009 the exhibition will travel to other cities in Colombia, including Cali, Bogotá and Barraquilla.