The Wailing Wall, a work by Wilman Gomez Tamayo

In this powerfully meaningful work, Wilman Gomez Tamayo's "Wailing Wall" brings together 60 photographic medallions , surrounded by sculpted golden palm fronds, to name and honor 60 Colombian victims who died during or just after the Covid-19 crisis in 2021. By liking, sharing, or commenting, you are invited to extend the tribute online. In this way, memory does not end at the walls of the exhibition hall.

Symbolic laying of a flower during the exhibition ‘Les Oubliés’ (The Forgotten)

Historical context

In 2021, Colombia experienced a wave of mass protests, triggered by a proposed tax reform and exacerbated by a health, economic, and social crisis. These demonstrations—involving young people, vulnerable rural and urban populations—were met with severe repression in some cases, resulting in dozens of deaths, injuries, disappearances, and numerous human rights violations. This climate of collective emergency, anger, and fragility significantly amplified the vulnerabilities created or exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wilman Gomez's Wailing Wall: 60 Faces Lest We Forget

Wilman Gomez Tamayo does not aim to support any political party or movement. His approach is apolitical: it is not about choosing sides, but about paying homage to human life, highlighting systemic violence and the disregard for existence, regardless of the perpetrators. The installation "The Wailing Wall" embodies this perspective: sixty faces, sixty individual lives, and powerful symbolism—golden palm fronds as a symbol of dignity, the white flower as an ephemeral offering, and an appeal to collective memory.

Wailing Wall at the 2025 exhibition in Brussels

Your digital gesture: like, share, comment

This work doesn't end in the theater: it continues online. You are invited to:

• Share this article on your social networks

• Commenting on a chosen face: name, thought, word to the victim

• Like the medallion image you choose or simply support the whole thing

  
  

  Each interaction becomes an act of homage, a real gesture of remembrance.