Tejiendo Vidas!
Welcome to the virtual exhibition of
Tejiendo Vida
Bajo la Piel
CLAUDIA
Guillermo
JOSE
J R A
Juan
MARLEY
NANCY
NELLY
TEJIENDO (ISABELLA)
Sometimes we forget to share and interact with other people, because our minds are so busy or we are doing so many things and with so many worries. The positivity of the workshops has given us the opportunity to interact with other people who are in the same circumstances and focus on what we have in common rather than our differences.
Welcome to the virtual exhibition
Tejiendo Vida
With the participants of online participatory therapeutic photography workshops and emotional care carried out by Fotosynthesis, Isabella Marín Muñoz and Cancillería de Colombia with the support of the Unidad para la Atención y la Reparación Integral a las Víctimas (Unit for the Attention and Integral Reparation of Victims).
This project aims to provide a space for recognition and reconciliation, generosity and active listening for Colombian men and women in exile, in the framework of psychosocial care for victims of the Colombian armed conflict abroad.
Isabella and Ingrid crossed paths through their respective work with the Colombian women’s diaspora. Both passionate about healing through art and deep listening, they decided to pool their experiences to develop a methodology together. Following a successful experimental workshop in the summer of 2019, they continued to dream.
When the pandemic and confinement hit, the face-to-face psychosocial support workshops led by Isabella were put on hold and the Colombians in need of this psychological support were left behind. Isabella found it hard to imagine the possibility of working therapeutically and collectively at a distance, even though she was already doing it individually. Ingrid, on the other hand, began to reinvent the form of accompaniment by creating online participatory photography processes, and that is where the idea for this process came from. Quite a challenge.
This exhibition is to commemorate the “Day of Memory and Solidarity with Victims”.
“I feel like I am in Colombia, in a family, sometimes I feel very lonely here. Meeting new people has been very important”.
Without hesitation, they decided to take the risk and adapt their workshops to an online format without knowing that they would create such a healing, intimate and caring space through a screen. The participants, like them, overcame their fears of technology and physical distance with a lot of love and care. The online version allowed them to reach people who were far away, who at other times had wanted to be part of the meetings, but distance or medical circumstances had prevented them from doing so.
,h sThey met through the screen, at first a little shy and expectant, and little by little, through the magic of careful listening, they created a safe space for storytelling. Stories that for many were untold, heartfelt stories of those that are central to life, that are part of who we are today. Each of us gave each other the gift of trust. Trust that made it possible to create that space of intimacy where the healing of wounds becomes possible and the social fabric is built.
The stories you will find in this exhibition are the fruit of this collective, creative and therapeutic process.
When we tell our stories in a context of heartfelt listening, in person or online, we give them air, we open space for the wounds to heal and we fertilise our souls with the loving acceptance of those who listen and understand. When we give value to what we have lived, and we give our stories, we water the present with experience to build a future with more hope and possibilities full of our strengths and learning seeing the stories from the perspective of strenght and creation rather than from fear and escape.
“Tejiendo Vida” was co-funded by the Victims Unit and the Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“I am very grateful to have met them and I am very grateful that they have created a harmonious space virtually, for allowing us to let go without shame, to establish trust.
Many thanks to Marcela for believing in our ideas, for supporting us and for working with such unconditional dedication.
Our logistical and IT support super hero, Laura! Supporting the participants before and during the workshops, handling Zoom and the technologies with lots of love, patience and smiles.
Isabella Marín Muñoz
Colombian by birth, she began her professional journey 18 years ago as a psychologist and systemic therapist working with people who had lived through traumatic situations associated with different forms of violence. She moved to Barcelona in search of movement and dance as a therapeutic form and found a world full of possibilities through the body, emotional expression, Biodanza, Active and Social Meditations, and EMDR.
She has dedicated herself to therapeutic care with asylum seekers from different parts of the world, to group care with people affected by the Colombian armed conflict, and to private practice where she combines all the tools she has learned.
Ingrid Guyon
French photographer, filmmaker and participatory audiovisual media practitioner who has migrated in Europe. Through her focus on migration, peacebuilding and gender, she has documented the Colombian diaspora in London since 2004, where she has worked with major cultural institutions, schools, communities and NGOs.
She strongly believes in self-representation as a right, encouraging that stories should be owned by the people being represented. The visual arts are for her powerful tools for engaging communities directly in identifying solutions, creating empathy and sharing and stimulating sustainable individual and collective change.
“I feel honoured to have their trust, with tears of happiness and emotion, to feel the beauty of the space and to laugh so much”.
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