Negotiating the Force of Art

This chapter focusses on one contemporary Colombian artist, Erika Diettes, as she seeks to respond to the devastating violence that her country has experienced. Reflecting on several different projects, it suggests that as Diettes attempts to “do justice” to the stories and the objects that are gifted to her in the course of her art-making, she must wrestle with the force of art, its potential promise but also potential power to do harm. Through her series of installations—Sudarios, Río Abajo, Relicarios, and the Oratorio for the Disappeared—Diettes has sought to offer insights into the stories of the armed conflict without ever telling them as such; indeed, several of her works arise from working with the survivors but do not present the stories, preferring an approach that is often itself peculiarly archival, arranging images and objects created with materials within installations that are beautiful but enigmatic.