Colombian surgeon and contemporary artist Libia Posada to visit Duke, Durham
Libia Posada’s art exhibit in Duke’s Friedl Building will remain on display until Sept. 20.
With support provided by the Katz Family Women, Ethics and Leadership Fund, the Kenan Institute for Ethics, Duke’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Global Health Institute, and the Artist Studio Project will host Dr. Libia Posada Aug. 31 to Sept. 16. Posada, a Katz Family Fellow, will spend her time on campus and in Durham leading workshops and presentations with students, faculty and community members that deal with migration and trauma, and how she connects art and medicine.
Posada will also showcase an art installation, “BE PATIENT | SE PACIENTE,” comprised of materials collected from Duke’s Medical Surplus Warehouse and Posada’s own work. The installation can be viewed from Aug. 28 through Sept. 20 at the Fredric Jameson Gallery in the Friedl Building on East Campus.
Programming and events during Posada’s stay include:
Sept. 1 to 6
Posada will collaborate with local non-profit El Centro Hispano, which advocates for equity and inclusion for Hispanics/Latinos in the Triangle. She will develop a focus-group workshop on migration, body and geography based on her 2008 artwork “Cardinal Signs (Body Maps),” which mapped the journey of forced displayed Colombians who fled war in their country with ink drawings on their legs. In Durham, Posada will work with a group of Central American migrants to share their stories of coming to the U.S. and detail the process physically by drawing maps of their travel on their bodies as a way to represent the physical toll of the experience.
Sept. 11 to 14
At Duke, Posada will visit classes to present to students, faculty and staff on her work dealing with partner violence and sexual violence. The visits are in coordination with the, Duke Global Health Institute, and Social Practice Lab. Posada will lead short workshop discussions on the topics from a medical, cultural, and social perspective, noting the phenomenon of infectious disease, violence, and trauma. Participants will produce text and image-based art based on the discussions.
Sept. 15 and 16
Posada will participate in the Franklin Humanities Institute’s Health Humanities Conference, “Breath, Body, Voice.” She will co-lead a workshop on her unique medical/artistic practice that links research, action, and creation with communities in Colombia and Durham. Her art exhibit and reception will be held 6 to 7:30 p.m. Sept. 16 at the Fredric Jameson Gallery at 115 Friedl Building on Duke’s East Campus.
