La memoria de las Urdimbres (Wrap Memory) is an art laboratory that explores memory, listening, corporal expression and poetry. Its name refers to the horizontal thread weaving together the threads of a loom, like memory does between human beings.

The project is aimed at Colombian migrants or exiles living in Germany who are interested in engaging in a process of memory construction through art. During the meetings we explored artistic ways of processing and articulating personal and collective life experiences in the context of the armed conflict in Colombia, migration and exile, recoding and materializing the reflections and emotions generated in poetry.

To this end, interdisciplinary tools were used, such as the body, the voice, silence and performative biographical work, as well as free writing, cutting, photocopying and pasting. We also worked with the testimonial volume “Cuando los Pájaros No Cantaban” (When the Birds Didn’t Sing) from the Truth Commission of Colombia.
This project took place on March 10, 16, 17, 23 and 24, 2024 at the Hansabibliothek in Berlin. During the five meetings, twelve Colombians living in Germany – between the ages of 24 and 57 – explored, through art, corporal expression, listening and poetry, ways of remembering the armed conflict in their country, as well as their individual and collective life experiences in contexts of violence and resilience. Some of the themes addressed during the laboratory were displacement, migration, exile, forced recruitment of minors, abuse and violence, and the role of the media.