Works

HEXAGRAMA 62
THE PREPONDERANCE OF THE SMALL

Muestra al hombre como, lo pequeño puede, en ciertas oportunidades, ser lo grande.

El pájaro volador trae el mensaje.

I Ching The Book of mutations.

Hace dos años por circunstancias de la vida y la magia, consulté el libro del I Ching por un tema personal, cuando leí el hexagrama mi impulso fue el de dibujar un pájaro, a partir de ese momento empecé a prestarles atención, a escucharlos en las madrugadas, a reconocer su belleza, las sincronicidades aparecieron de inmediato; libros por leer, caminatas atentas por hacer, pajaritos entrando a mi taller de visita. Este nuevo interés me llevo a convertirlo en experiencia vital y en motivo para el desarrollo de este proyecto.

The preponderance of the small is a work motivated by reflection on the historical circumstance we are going through in which humanity has ceased to see the primordial beings and elements of nature that are the basis of life and spirituality. 

In a dystopian world mired in uncertainty, the conviction that human beings are the center of the universe in their own right is beginning to appear before our eyes as a misleading and self-defeating approach, The anthropocentric model that advocates that the interests of human beings are those that should receive moral attention above any other instance and the establishment of a collective narcissism that imposes a contemptuous view on everything that implies difference or handicap have generated a blindness to the primary values, issues and elementary beings that are the foundation of life and societies.

From the execution of three-dimensional pieces that represent in detail the anatomy, colors and typical characteristics of various birds of the local Colombian fauna together with elements taken from the images of the Real Botanical Expedition, a spatial intervention device is constructed that apart from summoning the beauty, historical, aesthetic and political value of the scientific enterprise, invites reflection on the importance of recognizing the subtle presences, those that we do not see or little consider and that in reality are indispensable to recover the planetary harmony. As a metaphorical element, the work, beyond being a scientific reference, is a call to look at the other, the neighbor, with consideration, compassion and hospitality, an exercise of detailed observation of the simple and the essential.

Las aves, animales prodigiosos, de inteligencias y habilidades extraordinarias, son el indicador del deterioro o recuperación del entorno natural. Su presencia colorida y su canto son el síntoma de una naturaleza sana y vital y su ausencia el anuncio de una inminente tragedia ambiental. 

Las aves como animales tutelares de las comunidades de tradición se han visto representadas de manera profusa en el arte precolombino y en la producción artística de las poblaciones raizales pervivientes. De igual manera su representación ha sido frecuente en el transcurso de la historia del arte colombiano. La obra destaca este sentido de identidad cultural y hace una citación del pasado y del valor simbólico de las representaciones de la naturaleza en el arte culto y popular de Colombia.

The birds of the local Colombian fauna are used as in previous works (Críptidos 2014) (Santuario 1991) (Amazonía. 1987 -1990) as symbolic elements coming from nature to refer to the geographical and social environment and to the conditions of invisibility and exclusion of the beings of nature and of the less privileged people. 

Exhibition The preponderance of the small. involucra también las imágenes de la Real Expedición Botánica del Nuevo Reino de Granada (1783 – 1816) como referente visual de la representación botánica de la flora local y como reflexión política dadas las implicaciones históricas que suscitó esta empresa científica y humanista.

The Botanical Expedition was a project of research and cataloging of the nature of the territory of present-day Colombia sponsored by the Spanish crown during the reign of Charles III under the direction of the clergyman José Celestino Mutis. He compiled and classified more than 20,000 plant and 7,000 animal species, leaving a work of artistic record consisting of 5637 illustrations that are preserved today in the Royal Botanical Garden of Madrid since 1817, taken by the peacemaker Murillo, contradicting the will of Mutis, who wanted them to be preserved in Colombia. 

The Botanical Expedition was the most ambitious scientific and artistic project in history, with a team of up to 30 qualified painters of the highest level. The artists and scientists of the expedition, thanks to their intellectual prowess, came into contact with the liberal ideas of the French Revolution and their direct knowledge of the complex and unjust social reality of the country focused them decisively on the cause of the insurrection, becoming military heroes and martyrs of the Colombian war of independence. Mutis is pointed out as a precursor of Colombia's independence and the Expedition as its foundation. 

The aesthetic, political and intellectual legacy of the Expedition has had a decisive influence on Colombia's artistic production, with many artists of all times citing it, either directly in its aesthetic forms or in the critical political conception that has so intensely permeated national art.

A fundamental element of the production process is the fact that I am working directly with the complete set of the 36 volumes of illustrations of the Expedition published in 1954 under the auspices of the governments of Colombia and Spain, which are in my possession as invaluable working material.

The conjunction of the representation of local birds and the process of appropriation of the images of the Expedition acquires coherence in the light of the summoning of the natural environment and in particular of the local fauna and flora as elements of identity and cultural symbolism. At the time the expedition revealed species of which we had no knowledge, today my proposal is to make visible and stage two forceful elements that invite us to remember, to re-look at the world, with clean eyes and humanist conscience. 

The preponderance of the small is a multimedia installation and spatial intervention made up of a series of three-dimensional pieces executed in painted bronze, audiovisual projections and sound elements. The pieces have been executed with meticulous detail alluding directly to the processes of scientific representation, taking care of the detail of shape and color of the birds. The choice of bronze is due to the resistance of the material to capture delicate elements giving the pieces solidity, while suggesting the lightness of the aerial creatures.

Todo el conjunto conforma una pieza para un área aproximada de 60 metros. La penumbra con iluminaciones puntuales sobre las piezas sugiere la desaparición del entorno, la supresión del resplandor y el fulgor de los elementos banales a favor de la preponderancia de lo pequeño y fundamental.