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Materials Exhibition

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An emotionally threatening time. Being disconnected physically from the major protests in Colombia during April-June 2021 sparked overwhelming emotions in me and other exhilied Colombian/South American's throughout the globe. Being based in the Netherlands, a dichotomy between the commodified life I carry living in Europe and those surrounding me, whom are unaffected by the turbulance abroad, and the relationship I carried with the media I was receiving about life back 'home'. I combined my projects from school based on material exploration and the tumultuous momentum of the protests, violance and chaos.

It was most appropriate to create art with unified and brought people together. We/I engaged in performances. This ranged from protests, communal dialogues, ceremonial walks, cathartic drawings, and vaseline riturals (ref PDF).

After a week of death and protests, with a group of 9 people we pilgrimed to the Colombian embassy in The Hague, read the names for every life lost to that date. Flowers and awareness posters were left. As we were leaving we were interrogated by the Dutch police, the embassy workers never showed their faces.

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I have been gnawing at portraying my haven, Bogotá, Colombia. I have an extensive budget, of this I am aware, which permits me to study in Rotterdam and visualise different quotidian realities. So, when I go back home, I am confused of who I am.
Engaging in a pseudo-anthropological study of the city and its chaotic behaviours I realised a series of photographs and poems by her influence. I find a certain awe when I inhabit Bogotá as well as an enhancement in my behaviours. Although, she’s cold, harsh and everyone seems roboticised in movement, I focus on irreplaceable interactions of rich human existence. The intense chaos of being back in the onion (onion because she’s so big, there is always a layer to uncover) overwhelms me with psychological conflicts such as who am I? What is my position in the city? Am I foreign or immersed?
Poetry helps. Poetry helps a lot bringing impression together. This, like photography, is new medium for me. I get to practice my dialect when writing. When I go back, for the first couple of days my Spanish is rusty. When settling I re-speak my dialogue, or slang if you will, and begin to dream in Spanish again. Now writing this, I confess that last night I dreamt in English, and during the dream I corrected myself to think in Spanish. Language plays a big factor in my emotions and expression, for this poetry was a cathartic medium while understanding the onion.
Discovering new words, engaging in the anatomy of words, and putting them together to elaborate a non-fictional expression of catharsis is poetry. Es rico escribir, es rico. I get immediate satisfaction when writing unlike with analog photography, which is a more extensive process.
In the series of photographs, I capture raw moments of the city on the go while myself being on the go as well. It is a series of street photographs, by me an amateur and advocate of street life. I used an analog camera. There is no certainty in how the image will come out, whether images are blurry or not, if the exposure was right or not, and did I mention my camera is broken? Simultaneously these factors are metaphors for city life. Moments in Bogotá to me always seem like a haze upon reflection. An opportunity in the onion is not only mine. I capture the quotidian, when in awe.
Thus, after unlocking my subconsience with influence from the city, what have I produced? A series of photographs and poems with my positioning in the city. What I was able to discover from her, moments where I felt safe enough to photograph, where I wanted to capture and solidify instances. I gained respect from the city. I lived her, every day, and survived her. She studied me and I made art from her.

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dra's (f)Arts

A month after the initiation of protests we (myself and three other persons) hosted a protest and ceremonial walk in Rotterdam's flag district. The allocated time at the Erasmusbrug allowed for open dialogue, dance and exchange.

At The International Court of Justice reading the names of fallen ones and allocating flowers and offerings.

This is a new interpretation of the flag. A representation and catharsis of the people who decided to paint something on the fabric and collaborate on a new generation of zeitgeist. I decided to start this project as a form of unification and distraction of the horrors being presented and dialogued in the protests.

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