Those who tell their stories hold onto objects to organise their memories in a coherent , lasting , and stable form where the past can reside . The focus is less on explaining the facts than on making sense of that past in order to understand it , as the objects provoke and evoke a sensitive attitude towards human experience . Objects present in the physical spaces of daily life ; absent objects , remembered and narrated through words ; objects that represent intimate expressions intimate expressions that oscillate , move , flee , and return in an apparent disorder , with an intense range of emotions : passions , hatreds , attachments , fears , arrogances , disappointments , desires , liberations , or reprisals ( De Certeau , 2000 ).
Fondo Documental de la Colección de Objetos de la Memoria (‘ Documentary Fund of the Memory Objects Collection ’). This archive represents the memories of victims of the armed conflict in regions such as Cauca , Casanare , Caquetá , Córdoba , Guaviare , Huila , Meta , Nariño , Santander , and Valle del Cauca , among others . It comprises more than 100 objects donated to the Commission by victims or members who have led social processes of denunciation or reparations for the damages caused by the war for many years . The objects stand as memories of the wounds left by violence in these regions and represent territorial memory , referring to the experiences that evoke origins , identity , and the community , in line with the so-called “ differential approach to the Colombian conflict ”.
In these stories , the objects are numinous in the sense described by Rudolf Otto ( 1991 ), as they suggest a mystery , evoke terror and fascination that delve into the depth of memory , the experience of the past , and the expectation of the future . They are witnesses that survive time , while also acting as provocateurs of testimonial practice - of words - and thus of memory and remembrance . “ The past - what is absent , what has ceased to be - returns , embodied in the object that vectors both words and gestures ” ( Avila & Landa , 2022 ).
The stove : The fire pit is a significant object at the Truth House , where gatherings were held . This fire pit was built with the intention of bringing people together around food to talk about their experiences of the war . Buenaventura , Valle del Cauca , Colombia . 2 November 2021 .
Carlos Martín Beristanin , advisor to several truth commissions in different countries and a commissioner in the Colombian Truth Commission , said that “ objects symbolise the relationship with origins , ancestors , the founding myths of collective life , a type of debt to those who are no longer here ” ( Beristanin , 2021 ). There are also memories in objects , as the Commissioner said when referring to the uniqueness of the Colombian conflict ; to the differential , ethnic , and territorial approach that was adoptedduring the peace negotiations between the National Government and the FARC-EP ( 2016 ).
In the interest of reconstruct these territorial narratives , focusing on the victims and recognising the ethical and aesthetic dimensions of the of the communities , The Truth Commission created the
4 . Archive : Juliana Sandoval , curator of the exhibition “ Objetos sagrados , palabras preciosas ” ( Sacred Objects , Precious Words ) at the Centre for Memory , Peace and Reconciliation , Bogotá-Colombia . ( 2022 ). overview
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