Historical Memory

Social changes and events have a historical transcendence if they are present in the memory of peoples. It is this memory that helps give strength in the struggle for a society based on justice, equity and solidarity.

The historical memory of the Bolivian people is represented in more than 2000 works of Solón (his Quixotes, murals, engravings, watercolours, oil paintings and textiles) as well as the recovery and amplification of the struggles and proposals of social movements within the Foundation’s thematic work.

Walter Solón Romero represented historical memory in the image of a stone, which can be found in many of his paintings and artwork and which has become a symbol of the Foundation. The stone is a rock with a human face or a human with stone-like face, which is sometimes represented in the shape of the sun, moon or resistance fighters.

For Solón, the stone became the guardian of time and historical memory, a watching sentinel that nobody could escape. The stone, like the mountains and peaks, has life which moves, feels and cries. Moreover, the different forms in which the stone appears, transmits a feeling that transcends borders and which represents the abstract collective memory of a people.

Consequently the Solon Foundation considers the recovery and maintenance of historical memory as a crucial part of its work and as a vital resource for society in its search for justice.

It is expressed through the diffusion of Solón’s work as well as the Foundation’s promotion of artistic and social activities such as the construction of the Square of the Disappeared, the sharing of children’s drawings of the dramatic events of February 2003 and the organization of the “Walls that speak of Solidarity and Justice” which were painted on 15 walls of La Paz by talented young Bolivian artists in 2005.

To support this work, the Solón Foundation is also transforming the house, where Walter Solón Romero lived and worked, into a House-Museum which will narrate the history of social movements through Solón’s work and which will also promote art linked to social commitment which fights to retain the people’s collective memory in their struggle for a more just world.