“I planted myself to stop appearing in front of the world as victims and be truly a seed of life, hope and peace for Colombia.”
“I planted myself in recognition to the displaced people, the peasants and the indigenous people. And for all the people who have disappeared and those who carry on fighting.”
“I planted myself because we are the civil society and each and everyone of us, women, must assume our leading role as peace builders to change the history of our country.”
On October 21st 2017, ICIP, the International Catalan Institute for Peace, organized the performance of Cuerpos Gramaticales (Grammatical Bodies), an act of collective catharsis in the Estació del Nord park in Barcelona, in collaboration with the group Agroarte. Together with Barcelona based Colombian photographer Antonio Amador, we documented this 5 weeks process and experienced profound, intimate and healing journey along with the participating women.
Cuerpos Gramaticales was born in Medellín Commune 13 (Colombia) from Agroarte collective with the aim of generating practices of memories that contribute to the reconstruction of the social fabric following the phenomenon of enforced disappearance in the Commune, especially as a result of the Orion operation, that left more than 300 people disappeared. Agroarte is a process of peaceful resistance to oblivion and denunciation that uses sowing and art as tools to heal bodies and territories in defense of life, generating methodologies that build a community empowerment from dialogue as a way to build peace.
ICIP, with the support of the Barcelona City Hall, transferred this action to the city of Barcelona within the framework of the project 'Strategies of Memory, Truth and Reconciliation of Colombian Women Abroad', which focuses on peacebuilding and memory through artistic expressions. The performative action of Cuerpos Gramaticales in Barcelona supposes the conjunction between the struggles within the Colombian territory and the initiatives and demands of the women of the Colombian Diaspora. By joining other women’s bodies and voices, they build and generate collective processes of empowerment and healing.
Cuerpos Gramaticales is a process of collective care in which the participants prepare their bodies and souls through dance, theatre, literature and embroidery workshops that allowed the building of trust between them before the sowing action. Planting themselves allows them to go over their own memory and heal it, listening to internal dialogues in silence, listening to others and recognizing each other from common spaces, from the power of doing together. The final action was nourished by the diversity of women: some planted themselves to heal the deep marks that the Colombian conflict had left in their bodies and in the social fabric; others did it for their own sorrows; others, in solidarity with the struggles and resistance of women, the disappeared people and the victims. All of them planted themselves to build peace and reconciliation.
