Dr Lorna Dillon, Assistant Lecturer in Hispanic Studies in the Department of Modern Languages, has organised an Art and Human Rights Network Day at the Centre of Latin American Studies at the University of Cambridge, to be held next week on 20 June 2017. The event will be accompanied by an exhibition of Chilean arpilleras, which are hand-sewn three dimensional textile pictures, that illustrate the lives of the Chilean women.
Art has an extraordinary role to play in the process of peace building. In contexts in which war, migration and state-perpetrated violence has left painful legacies of collective trauma, the multi-valence of the art object has immense significance. Art and museum exhibitions are uniquely placed to intersect the public space and facilitate commemoration and dialogue. There is a need for understanding on the value and agency of museum and art exhibitions, which are linked to issues of human rights.
The event will bring together academics, artists and museum staff to discuss the value of exhibitions and the role of art in processes of peace building, reflecting on collective memory and providing trauma therapy. It will also explore the way artistic objects and museum artefacts from one context can be used for therapeutic purposes within a different context.
It will be of particular interest to students taking the Hispanic Studies module LS563: Terror and State Terror in Latin America, as the arpilleras will form part of the syllabus for the module in the forthcoming academic year.
There is no charge for the event and all are welcome.
For further details please see the webpage here:
http://cain.ulster.ac.uk/conflicttextiles/search-quilts/fullevent/?id=169