Intimate Maquettes Lab

The Intimate Maquettes Lab is a participatory artistic practice that explores how personal and collective memories of violence can be re-imagined and re-signified through small-scale narrative and audiovisual reconstruction. Developed over the past decade, the Lab engages individuals, families, and communities who have been protagonists of challenging experiences in a process of symbolic reconstruction, where symbolic cartographies of memory become a shared stage for testimony, reflection, and dialogue.

How it works

Each participant creates a maquette in the interest of exploring the link between personal and collective history, giving form to images, memories, absent elements, mythologies, and desires. These maquettes act simultaneously as archive, witness, and metaphor, opening new pathways for public conversation about trauma, justice, and reparation.

The talk

In this talk, I will share the conceptual framework of the Intimate Maquettes Lab, situating it within applied theatre, object-based performance, and trauma-informed artistic placemaking. I will also share aspects of my research motivated by key moments that have emerged throughout labs developed across Europe, North America, and Latin America, reflecting on the methodological and ethical challenges of working at the intersection of memory, art, and social repair.