Palonegro is the most recent project by Colombian artist Luis Carlos Tovar, presented for the first time in this exhibition. It is the fruit of several years of research between Colombia, Switzerland and France, both in the field and in numerous private and public archives of the three countries. Palonegro investigates a specific chapter in the history of violence in Colombia, the Thousand Days’ War (1899-1902), the country’s ninth and most important civil war. The bloody Battle of Palonegro (11-26 May 1900) was the most important battle of the conflict. Beyond this particular chapter of Colombian history, the artist’s research project explores the writing of history, its memorialisation and transmission, and possible processes for healing individual and collective traumas linked to political violence. He pays close attention to the narratives left out of official national histories and the multiple voices that shape them. He composes new interpretations by assembling excerpts from archives, documents and objects from different sources. His experimental use of photography, in which images are often cropped and evanescent, evokes the gradual erasure of memory. Palonegro also highlights the important and little-known links between Switzerland and Colombia in the creation and preservation of this country’s history.

With the support of Fondation Sandoz, République et Canton de Genève, and Fonds Culturel Sud.