Museums as Platforms of Resistance: The Use of Technology in Conflict Memory, Transitional Justice and Peacebuilding

Abstract

This article asks what we can learn about the role of technology as a tool of resistance in a post-conflict society by examining a case study of a museum under construction, and in the shadow of a still- unresolved conflict. We show how the virtual staging of the Centro Nacional de Memoria Histórica in Colombia has been crucial to its success in challenging more recent political events and in crafting national memory narratives during a period of fragile peacebuilding. We analyse a series of technologically mediated provocations and interventions mobilised by the Centro Nacional de Memoria Histórica in order to show how digital tools and media enabled the museum to commence its storytelling at a time of ongoing tension and dissensus. We argue that despite, or perhaps because of, the limitations of digital technologies in a predominantly rural country, these have proven a key tool in building a historical narrative around the Colombian conflict and in managing the tensions inherent in a fragile peacebuilding process. In this case study, we draw parallels between transitional justice initiatives and ongoing decolonial activities in museums, in order to reflect on the ways in which the use of technology might disrupt hegemonic narratives and traditional mnemonic practices and hierarchies.