Imagine Peace

Beyond Skin, in collaboration with Belfast Exposed and Escuelas de Paz, and coinciding with Good Relations Week (17-23 September), proudly presents Imagine Peace. This exhibition in Belfast is part of the #FUTyoURES creative Peace programme aimed at developing a shared creative model for conflict transformation in Colombia & Northern Ireland. At the heart of the project are the arts affirming the synergy between People and the Natural Environment around them. The #FUTyoURES programme is the collaborative brainchild of the organisations Beyond Skin (Northern Ireland) & Escuelas de Paz (Colombia). The focus of the project delivery is in Arauca & Soacha (Colombia) and Belfast, Craigavon, Keady & Cookstown (Northern Ireland).

The exhibition emphasises the power of photography as a tool to create a culture of hope to reach what they have been longing for: to live in peace. Through different photographic processes, the artists Ingrid Guyon and Antonio Amador, both individually and collaboratively, aim at transforming memories of migration, resistance and armed conflict into memories of peace.

Based in London and Barcelona, they have been independently documenting Colombian peace mobilisations with various collectives such as Paz a la Calle. Their artistic collaboration started in Barcelona with the Truth, Memory and Reconciliation Commission of Colombian Women in the Diaspora (TMRC) supported by Conciliation Resources, an independent peace building organisation. This led them to work with other collectives such as Paz a la Calle and The Collective of Colombian Exiled, Migrants and Refugee Women of Spain in the frame of the participatory project “Cuerpos Gramaticales”, a public sowing of women as a symbolic act of healing, organised by the International Catalan Institute for Peace (ICIP) and Agroarte, a local based organisation from Medellin in which the two women’s collectives took part. Both feminist initiatives work with the Colombian women's diaspora to visibilise their voices and role in the peace process and in the construction of the historical memory of Colombia towards women’s empowerment, integration in their host countries, reconciliation, healing and justice.

Darren Ferguson Founder of Beyond Skin said, “We are delighted to welcome and host this wonderful exhibition in Belfast as part of Community Relations Cultural Awareness week and Peace Day Culture Night. Using Art to create inviting inclusive spaces for learning, sharing and healing has never been as important as it is now in these challenging times. Somos semilla - crecemos juntos.”

Deirdre Robb, CEO of Belfast Exposed - Northern Ireland’s centre for photographic excellence, bringing the best of world photography to the heart of Belfast, states, “Belfast Exposed has a long history of presenting work with a socially engaged ethos, while responding to contemporary currents in photography and politics further afield. Therefore, we are delighted to collaborate with Beyond Skin to present the work of artists Ingrid Guyon & Antonio Amador whose work is both thought-provoking and engaging.”