Visibilising Invisible Voices

A cornerstone of @MVRColombia is the visibility of women victims of the armed conflict and public representation of women’s experiences of violence - and of solidarity and empowerment as agents of change and peacebuilding. MVR facilitates opportunities for shared reflection and artistic co-creation, i.e., participatory, creative, therapeutic, generative approaches to storytelling and constructing memory.

 Invisible Voices is a series of artistic co-creation workshops, listening to and amplifying the voices of women victims of the Colombian conflict.

Using both traditional arts and crafts and innovative digital media, such as e-poetry, women discuss gender and the (in)visibility of women’s lives – including their experience of violence - in museums, websites, artworks, and other official spaces. Women victims question their representation and explore alternative forms of communication to the ‘official language’ of the State. Co-creation workshops are organised with MVR community counterparts La Ruta Pacífica de las Mujeres and Corporación Zoscua, and led by MVR co-investigator Dr María Mencía (University of Kingston).

Mujeres Voces Invisibles del Conflicto 

The MVIC App (Mujeres Voces Invisibles del Conflicto) was specially created by @MVRColombia for co-creation workshops with women victims of the armed conflict

 During and after the Voces Invisibles workshops on memory construction and artistic co-creation, an app can be used by participants - women victims of conflict – to share stories, if they choose, in writing, speech or video. The app was created especially for the purpose by @MVRColombia team members Dr Claudia Liliana Zúñiga-Cañón of Universidad Santiago de Cali (USC), Colombia, and Dr Rafael Asorey Cacheda from Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena (UPCT), Spain, and the contributions edited and curated into digital art and poetry by Dr Maria Mencia of the University of Kingston, UK.

Learn more about the app and artwork on the co-creation website.  

UPTC travelling exhibition

UPTC Travelling exhibition takes artworks produced by women victims in the co-creation workshops on tour.

Artworks, artefacts, and visuals representations of armed conflict in the Boyacá region, made during @MVRColombia co-creation workshops, now form part of a travelling exhibition staged by the UPTC, which is visiting the university’s four regional campuses in 2022.