This conference brings voices from the San Agustín region in southern Colombia to Berlin. Representatives of the organization “Veeduría de la Rematriación del Patrimonio Arqueológico del Macizo Colombiano”, together with artists, activists, and scholars, invite the public to an extended cultural program and discussion format.
We will explore the history of the stone sculptures of the Pueblo Escultor which were taken from Colombia and brought to Berlin after 1919 by German ethnologist Konrad Theodor Preuss. The collection remains in the possession of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation to this day.
The event is a critical engagement with colonial collection practices, museum-based violence, and the question of how rematriation of cultural heritage can take shape today as a political, aesthetic, and spiritual practice. Participants are invited to collectively engage with colonial object biographies and epistemic counter-narratives.
The Return of the Stone People – The Oversight Committee from the Colombian Massif comes to Berlin
2:00 PM – Introductory reflections on the Pueblo Escultor: the creators of the greatest lithic library in the Americas. Visual series: www.puebloescultor.org
4:00 PM – Cinema Shorts
To Heat the Stone – Alejandra Alarcón
¿What Will Become of Us? – Diego Pinilla
Preuss’ Dilemma – Julian Santana
Accompanying Exhibition:
Logbook of the Rematriation
Illustrations of the Stone People in Berlin
5:00–7:00 PM – Round table discussion (presential & virtual)
Moderator: Carlos Gómez
With contributions from:
– Yanakuna indigenous community
– Oversight Committee from the Colombian Massif
– Alejandra Alarcón, Artist in Berlin
– Monica Eraso, Preuss scholar
– Pierre Losson, specialist in cultural heritage repatriation
