Tambores de Siloé

LOCATION: COLOMBIA, SOUTH AMERICA

YEAR: 2020

Our histories in the music of the Barrio

FUNDACIÓN SIDOC & PROFESSOR IAN MIDDLETON

This collaborative project involved the young members of the music group Tambores de Siloé constructing digital narratives about their family history and how they came to live in the underprivileged neighbourhood of Siloé in Cali, Colombia. These young people then used these histories for creative musical projects such as instrument-making and composition. The activities and products were led and analysed reflexively by practitioners from Fundación SIDOC, who have worked directly with Tambores for over ten years, and ethnomusicologist Professor Ian Middleton, who has collaborated with the group since 2014.

To read the final report prepared by Alexandra Patino (SIDOC), Moisés Zamora (SIDOC) and Ian Middleton (Universidad de los Andes) click here.

Two short films from the project can be found on YouTube: 

Showing and Sounding Our Histories was made by members of Tambores de Siloé, with edition by Ian Middleton. It focusses on the attitudes of the young filmmakers’ families and neighbours to change in their sector of Cali. In the voices of three members, it reflects on some of the ways the project Our Histories in the Music of the Barrio interpellated those dynamics.  

A History in the Music of the Barrio was made by Tambores de Siloé with community filmmaker Eduardo Montenegro. It focuses on one member of the group, Valentina Urcuqui, showing her family relationships, both biological and constructed, and how they relate to her musical life. 

Spanish readers may be interested in an article on the project and another article on an event following its completion.

Project Team