PBI-Spanish State hosts ‘Impregnated Presence’ photographic exhibition by three brigadistas on their time in Colombia

Peace Brigades International-Spanish State has organized the ‘Impregnated Presence. Vital footprint of three international companions in Colombia’ photographic exhibition to be seen between February 20 and March 13 in Zafra, Spain.

PBI-Spanish States notes, “Miguelo, Dorrit and Jorge are three of the more than 680 people who have been part of the PBI Colombia field teams in their 25 years of history. Each brigadista leaves his own mark, his own history, his own ties and affections that together weave this history of resistance and international solidarity.”

“This exhibition suggests the story of what this experience has meant in your life and the profound effect on your closest affective environments. In addition, it portrays the daily life of a political, social and armed conflict and the experiences of community and nonviolent resistance of that other Colombia forgotten in the big headlines.”

El Pais has reported, “The Spaniards Jorge Mata and Miguel Ángel Giménez, as well as the Dutch Dorothea Timmer, decided one day in Colombia for brigades.”

“Their common strength is, once they have finished their work as brigade members, continuing to exercise their accompaniment from a personal and vital option, their own existence being an extension of the peace and justice desires of those places that they inhabited and made their own.”

“The three died in the interval between 2011 and 2017. Their wake between communities and human rights organizations is reflected in memories, anecdotes and stories that explode nonstop in jungles, towns and cities of Colombia, as well as within from their own families and friends.”

That article continues, “[The photo exhibition is an] opportunity to highlight the personal and family transformation that meant to these three brigade members the experience of acting as international companions in Colombia, making visible those who continue to fulfill this valuable task today and recognizing the work of PBI in a country that is still harassed by tremendous forces producing pain and misery.”

For more, please see the Peace Brigades International-Spanish State Facebook event page Presencias Impregnadas en Zafra (Badajoz). The exhibition was previously presented by PBI-Spanish State in Madrid, Spain in September 2019.

Photos by Amnistía Internacional Navarra posted on Facebook in November 2019.