Costales(2021) is a mobile memorial I created during my time living in Colombia for four months in 2021. It was dedicated to the social leaders that had died that year in the state of Antioquia, a re-emerging issue since the signing of the Peace Accord in 2016.
While the treaty had initially gained a cease fire agreement from the FARC, dramatically reducing the number of deaths across the country, by 2018 the number of social leaders being murdered annually was begining to rise steadily and only worsened under the watch of President Ivan Duque Marquez. The murder of these social leaders — citizens from all walks of life including journalists, teachers, ex-FARC members, indigenious leaders, and farmers alike — were, if nothing else, a sign of a complacent National Police and disinterested government.
As BLM protests continued in the United States, similar movements were manifesting around the world. In Colombia this culminated into El Paro Nacional, a state sanctioned national day of protest that occured on April 28, 2021. As a way of participating in these protests I created a series of ten memorials out of burlap bags that had been used for shipping coffee. Each bag was dedicated to a social leader that had been killed in the state of Antioquia (where I was living) that year. With their names and the death dates painted on the pre-used coffee bags, they were unstitched and layed long-ways to mimic body bags. Both features speaking to the rural areas where many of the victim’s, as well as the country’s cash crops, came from. The costales were placed in four locations around Medellin’s diverse and bustling Candelaria district, aka El Centro, over a 24-hour period: El Plaza Botero, La Iglesia de la Veracruz (one of the oldest in Medellin), el Parque de las Luces, and Berrio Station.
The result brought on curiousity and conversation with locals about the news that was not widely publicized.
Filed Under: Public Art, Community Engagement, Memorials, Social Justice, Colombia
While the treaty had initially gained a cease fire agreement from the FARC, dramatically reducing the number of deaths across the country, by 2018 the number of social leaders being murdered annually was begining to rise steadily and only worsened under the watch of President Ivan Duque Marquez. The murder of these social leaders — citizens from all walks of life including journalists, teachers, ex-FARC members, indigenious leaders, and farmers alike — were, if nothing else, a sign of a complacent National Police and disinterested government.
As BLM protests continued in the United States, similar movements were manifesting around the world. In Colombia this culminated into El Paro Nacional, a state sanctioned national day of protest that occured on April 28, 2021. As a way of participating in these protests I created a series of ten memorials out of burlap bags that had been used for shipping coffee. Each bag was dedicated to a social leader that had been killed in the state of Antioquia (where I was living) that year. With their names and the death dates painted on the pre-used coffee bags, they were unstitched and layed long-ways to mimic body bags. Both features speaking to the rural areas where many of the victim’s, as well as the country’s cash crops, came from. The costales were placed in four locations around Medellin’s diverse and bustling Candelaria district, aka El Centro, over a 24-hour period: El Plaza Botero, La Iglesia de la Veracruz (one of the oldest in Medellin), el Parque de las Luces, and Berrio Station.
The result brought on curiousity and conversation with locals about the news that was not widely publicized.
Filed Under: Public Art, Community Engagement, Memorials, Social Justice, Colombia