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CALL FOR PAPERS BARAHÚNDA#4

BARAHÚNDA#4 THE DISPUTE OF MEMORY

 

 

Memory, as a construction of the past, has been and is a central theme for artistic reflection. In this context, we invite authors to explore the complex interactions between individual memory and collective memory, as well as the way these are represented and constructed. From the narratives that emerge from personal accounts to official histories, we propose a critical analysis of how conflicts manifest in the transmission of memory and how these tensions shape our way of understanding the past.

 

Similarly, we understand that it is essential to consider the role of oblivion and the destruction of memory in the construction of cultural identities. Artistic strategies, often linked to other practices of political memory, can serve to rethink the past, thus questioning the predominant division between the objectivity of history and the subjectivity of narratives. We invite reflection on how art can become an ecosystem of resistance, where fiction and poetics give visibility to forgotten fragments of memory, creating a dialogue between the present and the past that challenges dominant narratives.

 

For their part, the disputes of memory raise two major questions about the responsibility of art in the creation and oblivion of history. Through the review of formats and materials (documents, images, objects) we invite to reflect on the museum as an institutional device of memory (unilinear, evolutionist, monumental, and with an aspiration for permanence) and on the relevance of alternative, conscious, horizontal, and collective practices, which consider multiple sources such as microhistory and orality and which give space to the ephemeral, the informal, and the ungraspable. On the other hand, given the wounds exposed by these artistic practices, how to address the trauma and pain inherent to collective memory through artistic practices?

 

Finally, this call seeks to reflect on the commitment of art in the construction of heterodox narratives that question the present. In a world where the manipulation of the past is a palpable reality, art emerges as a crucial medium to make the process of memory visible and to propose new forms of the future. We invite all those interested to submit their texts and contribute to this dialogue on memory, art, and the construction of history.

 

Thus, this ISSUE #4 of BARAHÚNDA aims to bring together texts that explore THE DISPUTE OF MEMORY.



Among the lines of approach to the proposed theme we can point out:

  • Reflections on memory / representation-construction of the past.
  • Stories vs. History. Conflicts over the transmission of memory(ies).
  • Thinking about oblivion / the destruction of memory. The protection of memory(ies).
  • The subjectivity of narrative construction vs. the objectivity of history.
  • Reflections on the emergence of memory, the need to think about the past.
  • Reflections on the (memory) dispute over the construction of history.
  • Thinking about the forms / formats / materials of memory (documents, images, diaries, materials, historical objects, etc.)
  • The museum as an institutional memory device. Thinking about the museum.
  • The monument, memorials, and other memory(ies) devices.
  • Fragile memories - Vulnerable memories. Precarious, sound-based, tactile, affective, emotional materialities, etc.
  • The absence of memory. Other voices: the unrepresented. Counter-hegemonic memories.
  • Expanded memory / fragments of memory / rhizomatic history.
  • Fiction / poetic strategies to construct memory.
  • What role does art play in thinking about memory?
  • How to construct artistic mechanisms to rethink the past?
  • Reflections concerning the present. What imposes itself as the present in relation to the past? Is art not an ideal place to question the narrative and propose alternative "presents," pasts, and forms of future?
  • To what responsibilities is artistic production beholden in relation to the construction / oblivion of memory?
  • Memory as pain. Thinking about trauma, mourning, loss...
  • The commitment of art to memory. Commitment to the construction of narratives/histories.
  • The sources of memory, the search for other source systems (microhistory, orality, materiality, etc.)
  • The manipulation of the past. Artistic strategies of manipulation/construction. Making the process of memory visible.


ISSUE #4 COORDINATORS: MATEO VILLAMIL-VALENCIA & MARIO ESPLIEGO

 

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: NOVEMBER 1, 2025

 

LANGUAGES ACCEPTED: SPANISH AND ENGLISH