Curatorship for meaning making: contributions towards symbolic reparation at the Museum of Memory of Colombia

• Published in: Museum management and curatorship (1990) 2019-11, Vol.34 (6), p.544-561
• Main Authors: Lleras, Cristina, González-Ayala, Sofía Natalia, Botero-Mejía, Juliana, Velandia, Claudia Marcela
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Activism; Art exhibits; Arts management; Case studies; Curators; Human rights; human rights museums; Memory; Museum of Memory of Colombia; Museums; National Center for Historical Memory; non-repetition; Reparations; Symbolic reparations; Symbolism
• ISSN: 0964-7775; 1872-9185
• DOI: 10.1080/09647775.2019.1675966

This article examines via case study research the ways in which diverse actors made sense and gave meaning to an exhibition related to armed conflict and reparation in Colombia. Voces para transformar a Colombia (Voices for the Transformation of Colombia, 2018) was a temporary, 'living museum' which presented the Museum of Memorýs storyline (a national museum still in planning) to the public. This museum was recently ordered by the Law for Victims and Land Restitution (2011) to contribute to the symbolic reparation of the victims of the country's armed conflict. We contend that contributions towards measures of satisfaction and non-repetition, two criteria prescribed by this law, may be located both in the creation of curatorial discourses, and also in the way in which different groups become meaning makers themselves by appropriating these discourses for their own purposes. By analysing the participation of victims during the process of making the exhibition and visitor (including victims') reactions to it, we will highlight how curatorship contributes to measures of reparation, and also consider its limits in this regard.