Chairs
• Germán Medardo Sandoval Trigo. medardosandoval@gmail.com
• María Isabel Rojas maria.isabel.rojas.ticona@vub.be
• María Gabriela Ábalos. mgabalos@itcsa.net
• Dolunay Bulut. dolunaybulut@newschool.edu
• Jorge Luis Vaca Forero. jvacaforero@gmail.com
MODERA
Ana María Lozano Rocha

SPEAKERS

Jhoana Alexandra	Delgado Gaitán
Juliana	Acuna
LUZ MARIA	SANCHEZ DUQUE

The Colombian Constitution of 1991 was conceived as a democratic watershed that promised inclusion, the recognition of ethnic and cultural diversity, the protection of fundamental rights, the expansion of mechanisms for citizen participation, and peacebuilding. However, more than three decades after its promulgation, outstanding debts persist regarding memory, truth, and reparation, especially for communities affected by the armed conflict and the structural violence that endures in Colombia.

Based on this framework, it is possible to affirm that artistic practices in Colombia have continuously reflected upon the political situation and how this ideal of a constitutional language—one capable of materialising and socialising processes of mourning, symbolic justice, and social pedagogy in the public space—is posited. Works, monuments, counter-monuments, and collective artistic practices propose a dialogue with the unfulfilled promises of the Charter of ’91, creating new forms of constitutionalism that are read not only in tribunals but also in streets, museums, plazas, and territories.

The panel proposes to explore how contemporary artistic practices in Colombia can be understood as a dimension of constitutionalism, insofar as they develop tools for the fostering of intergenerational memory, community resilience, and cultural reparation that complement traditional legal responses to a changing world.

Lines of Analysis:

1. Constitutional promises and their artistic representations.

How have the promises of the 1991 Constitution (pluralism, peace, participation, minority rights, the environment) been translated into artistic practices?

Examples: works that reinterpret the preamble, the notion of a multicultural nation, or collective rights.

2. Art as a tool for memory and symbolic reparation.

The role of art in processes of transitional justice, truth, and reparation in Colombia.

Practices of counter-monuments, memorials, performances, or community weaving as expressions of cultural justice.

3. Public space, art, and sustainable constitutionalism.

The construction of public space as a site of constitutional and symbolic dispute.

How works such as Fragmentos (Doris Salcedo) or Auras Anónimas (Beatriz González) dialogue with collective memory.

Risks: censorship, political instrumentalisation, symbolic fatigue.

4. Aesthetic constitutionalism and social pedagogy.

Art as a form of constitutional education, especially for marginalised populations.

The potential of art to create active and conscious citizenship.

5. Intersection between art, cultural rights, and sustainability.

Recognition of art as a cultural right protected by the Constitution (Arts. 70 and 71 of the Charter of ’91’).

Sustainable dimension: how art guarantees the transmission of intergenerational memory, community resilience, and social cohesion.