Many of Colombia’s most respected living artists have never known their country at peace. Since the bitter divisions of the Liberals and Conservatives in the 19th century to the rise of rural-based guerrillas such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and National Liberation Army (ELN) in the 1960s, the country has witnessed its share of political and social strain.
Then decades of drugs-related violence from entrenched cocaine cartels. Even artist Fernando Botero eloquently captured this violent era with a series of oil paintings and one in which Pablo Escobar is struck down by a hail of bullets. Contemporary sculptor Nadín Ospina went on to transform large size Lego into colorful guerrillas. And Pedro Ruíz, known for iconic canoes brimming with tropical birds and fruits, painted poppies and camouflaged anti-drugs police in his “Love is in the Air” series.
As the peace talks in Havana between FARC and the Government enter a critical phase to end a more than half century of conflict, the Banco de la República – Central Bank – is launching an exhibition titled “Frente al otro: dibujos en el posconflico” (Facing each other: Drawings in the post-conflict”).
The exhibition is a testimonial encounter between 12 invited artists and 130 reintegrated former combatants to tell in drawings the uncertainties and truths of a group of Colombians removed from the armed conflict. The exhibition is another cultural undertaking from the Central Bank’s “Peace has the word” project.
The project began in 2013 in Cartagena, Bogotá, Pereira, Monteria, Medellín, Florencia, Cúcuta, Valledupar, Villavicencio, Ibague, Cali and Quibdo. Workshops were held with guest artists to explore the process of the graphic narrative and as new works were created they revealed as much of the Colombian reality as the creative forces at work. The exhibition also takes a selection of drawings created by members of the reintegration program, created by the government under the Agency for Reintegration (ACR).
The artists invited to work on this “face-to-face” with the demobilized former combatants are Daniel Salamanca, Maria Isabel Rueda, Angelica Zorrila, Quijano Catalina Jaramillo, Andrew Frix Manuel Kalmanovitz, Kevin Mancera, Tatiana Cordoba, Inu Waters, Joni B and Jim Pluk. There is also a visual peace “timeline” starting with the War of 1000 Days to the current talks in Havana.
Peace for Colombia may not imply the absence of conflict nor the successful implementation of a specific “peace” model from another region. Besides needing the political will and social changes to generate a climate of trust, words will be required to document this historical moment in time – and as the Central Bank presents in this exhibition – images to help us imagine a better future.
The exhibition will run until October 12th in “El Parqueadero” a shared cultural space of the Fundación Gilberto Alzate Avendaño and the Banco de la República.
Calle 11 # 4 – 21. Free admission.
