GRIE
VING
Societies, like individuals, suffer from repressed memories, unspoken words, concealed grief, and feelings of misunderstanding, loneliness, and anguish
Grieving is a conflict that must be confronted
It enables stripped bodies to develop new ways of being and feeling. It involves embracing the necessity of change and asserting the right to a future filled with possibilities.
Reaching a collective understanding of grieving involves, on one hand, recognizing the victims as a central political body, situating them within the realm of the public and political action. On the other hand, it relates to an emancipatory action that requires a shift in the positioning of these bodies, leading to new ways of perceiving the world and being affected by it.
Grieving is a process that is never complete; it is constantly redefined, mobilized, and transformed over time and space. As an event, grieving provides a new symbolic and material framework for both the individual and the territory, freeing memories that have been trapped by war.
Territorial Expressions
of Grieving
The Territorial Expressions of Grieving
are the focus
of this research
Our bodies have been shaped by their wounds; the scars are traces of those injuries that persist in the process of healing or suturing the present
The intertwined violences that have stripped bodies of their relationality to their homes, mountains, and rivers reflect profound transformations in territorial relationships. Emotions such as feeling at home, rootedness, appropriation, and permanence become disrupted when violence intrudes. This creates a back-and-forth journey marked by the loss of symbolic values due to armed conflict, compelling the emergence of new rituals and, consequently, new spatialities within and alongside these territories. These new practices are essential not only for adaptation but also for healing the emotional landscape and restoring connections to the land.
Recognizing the violence within the territory means acknowledging it as another affected entity that, in turn, impacts other lives (Alejandro Castillejo, 2021).
Recognizing the Atrato River as a Subject of Rights and Gilgal as a Subject of Collective Reparations is an example of this, because by acknowledging the river and an entire community as victims that must be repaired, we are recognizing the harm done and, consequently, the importance of the cultural, natural, and emotional elements associated with these territories.
Emotions can be territorialized,
and in that process of territorialization,
they have the capacity to transform spaces
Although emotions initially manifest in the body, they later extend across various spatial scales, from the most intimate to the most collective.
This research identifies two types of Territorial Expressions of Grieving: the marks in the landscape and the architectural dispositives of grieving
Marks in the Landscape
The landscape is written, painted, observed, and read; it is also transformed and constructed.. Humans develop a relationship with the landscape, and in this mutual interaction, when they create a landscape, the landscape also shapes them. It fosters a culture that influences their thinking, behavior, and perceptions, encompassing emotions, productive practices, rituals, and everyday memories.
In the amphibious landscapes of the Bajo Atrato, the eruption of war disrupted the connection between the natural and social worlds. The pain and displacement are evident in the marks left on the landscape: polluted rivers, lands overtaken by palm monocultures, and areas devastated by extensive cattle ranching.
However, new possibilities are emerging to transform these landscapes, fostering alternative ways of working with the land that promote food sovereignty and diverse agricultural practices. These territorial actions shift the landscape from monoculture to polyculture, creating opportunities to reclaim and highlight the biocultural richness inherent in these areas.
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Isaac Tuberquia Biodiversity Zone
Sasardí Reserve
architectural dispositives of grieving
Grieving occurs with other human and non-human beings through relationships of mutual care, which involve actions and materialities that sustain and repair life, rather than merely being a moral disposition.
In these territories of the Bajo Atrato, architectural dispositives of grieving have emerged, such as the theater in Curvaradó, the dock in the Marriaga Swamp Marriaga, and the Archaeological Museum in Santa María de la Antigua del Darién.These architectural elements not only highlight the fractures caused by systematic violence but also create social spaces for addressing conflicts, fostering healing, and transforming the pains inflicted by war.
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Selva Adentro theater
The dock in the Marriaga Swamp
Archaeological and Historical Museum in Santa María de la Antigua del Darién
Architecture on its own cannot resolve conflict, but understanding its spatial dimensions is essential for a comprehensive response. Both material and immaterial expressions should be viewed through their relationships, as the invisible also holds significance. Architecture is not merely a formal concern; it fundamentally addresses social and cultural issues, deeply rooted in specific places, contexts, territories, and histories, which give it ethical and aesthetic meaning.
Octavio Paz once stated that architecture is the most unyielding witness to history. Today, as we undergo the implementation of the Peace Agreement; a pivotal moment for our society; these architectural dispositives of grieving serve as witnesses to an era, leaving both material and immaterial imprints on the emotional landscape of the Bajo Atrato territories.