An illustrated leporello weaving poetry and collective memory around Colombia's armed conflict.
Las Cicatrices is an illustrated leporello that offers a personal interpretation of the poem Las cicatrices by Piedad Bonnett, in conversation with the memory-building efforts led by Colombia's Truth Commission regarding the country's armed conflict.
Using the leporello format which unfolds in an intimate and continuous flow the piece seeks to reflect the traces left by violence: scars that mark not only bodies, but also the collective memory of a nation.
The back of the leporello (a vertical unfolding section) pays tribute to a collective memory action carried out by women and youth from Bogotá, Soacha, and Sumapaz: the creation of embroidered mantles as a way to tell their truths through art, resistance, and care. This section visually simulates a building covered by these mantles, echoing the symbolic act in which the textiles were used to wrap institutions tied to justice, reparation, and truth. Through this gesture, embroidery becomes a language of healing, visibility, and recognition of silenced stories.
Las cicatrices is a poetic and visual echo of that woven memory a call to remember, to transform pain into story, and to weave new heartbeats for truth.
