Documentación artística instalativa de personas desplazadas forzosamente sin espacio (análisis de Signos cardinales de Libia Posada)

Colombia has the highest levels of forced displacement in Latin America. Since the 1980s, this crime has intensified in connection with narcotrafficking, the rise of modern paramilitarism, and shifts within guerrilla groups, resulting in nearly nine million people being uprooted by April 2025. Narratives of these crimes, circulated through mass media, are often normalized and lose the gravity they demand. In contrast, art offers alternative forms of storytelling in which the voices of forcibly displaced people take center stage and resonate more widely. This article argues that installational artworks that make forced displacement visible construct their own spatiality out of the spatial destruction produced by the crime itself. Its central aim is to demonstrate this through an analysis of Signos cardinales (2008) by Libia Posada, a work that documents the histories of forcibly displaced women—presenting them with bodies yet without homes. Methodologically, the study adopts a deductive approach grounded in phenomenological perspectives on space. To contextualize forced displacement in Colombia, it draws on sources that reconstruct its history through victims’ testimonies. For the analysis of the artwork, the text engages aesthetic reflections to qualitatively examine its material composition. The article concludes that Signos cardinales functions as an archive that records its protagonists’ struggle—as political bodies—to build space and memory. Finally, to contribute to the fight against these crimes against humanity, it stresses the importance of continuing research in this field. The article’s originality lies in asserting that the spatial construction of the installation that documents forced displacement is rooted in the destruction of vital space produced by this violation.