El territorio no está en venta
2011 - Sculpture (Sculpture)
María Buenaventura
The Territory is not for sale is a process of reflection and research with people, thinkers and community leaders from Usme, a rural part of Bogotá on the tenuous verge of becoming urban. As an art object and installation, it comprises multiple stacks of paper each containing the decrees of land expropriation from many different peasant farmers who are being forced to sell their lots of land back to the government. Usme lies at the southern urban-rural border strategically located next to the Páramo de Sumapaz, an enormous neo-tropical tundra ecosystem and water reserve. It had remained relatively isolated from the city-proper until 1954 when it became incorporated into Bogotá, triggering a process of residential densification through legal and illegal urbanization. Usme remains the very last green area for urban expansion. The farmers do not want to sell because they want to keep their way of living, and even if some would want to become “urban citizens” they will not able to afford to do so given the absurd price offered for their land. While the problematic transformation of land from rural to urban, and the multiple forms of displacement lays in those stacked papers, there is also moments marked where inflicted communities rise above those struggles. To represent the mobilization of these communities, the artist has excised a section of each decree to plant the local crop or mineral from the area; as each plants grows from the stacks of paper, the decrees in turn begin to materially deteriorate. In appreciating this work, it is helpful to understand the rapid growth and densification of Bogotá over the 20th century that has produced unequal urban development stamped by social divisions — the coexistence of informal and formal modes of survival, illegal and legal access to housing, and the blending of rural and urban lifestyles. Poor migrant workers fleeing Colombia’s 60-year armed conflict have settled in increasingly dense peripheries of the country’s capital, such as Ciudad Bolívar and Usme, thus informally extending the breadth of the city towards its southern borders at a rapid pace of growth. Most of them have purchased illegal plots of land from swindlers, built their houses by themselves and fought for infrastructure, equipment and services through political organizing.
María Buenaventura is an artist, author and chef. Her artistic practice focuses primarily on the history and socio-political implications of food and culinary traditions, as well as concepts of historicity and memory. From the early 2000s she has been researching the history of food in the Sabana of Bogota, where she lives and works, as a way to unearth the narratives and experiences of local communities. Concerned with principles of preservation, she arranges in her works collected fragments, stories, recipes, testimonies, residues of landscapes and few ingredients in order to explore the dynamics that tie a territory, a community, its culture, its education and its traditions together. Through her different projects, Buenaventura reflects on questions of belonging and survival, of both human and non-human beings, in relation to a history of violence, looting and destruction. As she states: “The search for forgotten beings and the certainty that they are alive” drives her artistic practice.
Colors:
Related works sharing similar palette
© » KADIST
Jedediah Caesar
2009For Untitled, Caesar encased recycled objects such as scraps of plywood, paper or cloth in resin and then cut and reassembled the pieces into abstract forms...
© » SLASH PARIS
Group show — Tous les jours — Galerie Chantal Crousel — Exposition — Slash Paris Connexion Newsletter Twitter Facebook Group show — Tous les jours — Galerie Chantal Crousel — Exposition — Slash Paris Français English Accueil Événements Artistes Lieux Magazine Vidéos Retour Group show — Tous les jours Exposition Dessin, photographie, sculpture, techniques mixtes.....
© » KADIST
Ahmet Ögüt
2022Monuments of the Disclosed by Ahmet Ögüt is an NFT series of digital monuments to whistleblowers...
© » ART & OBJECT
Art Institute of Chicago Workers Ratify First Contract | Art & Object Skip to main content Subscribe to our free e-letter! Webform Your Email Address Role Art Collector/Enthusiast Artist Art World Professional Academic Country USA Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua & Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Ascension Island Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia & Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Indian Ocean Territory British Virgin Islands Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Canary Islands Cape Verde Caribbean Netherlands Cayman Islands Central African Republic Ceuta & Melilla Chad Chile China Christmas Island Clipperton Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia Comoros Congo - Brazzaville Congo - Kinshasa Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Curaçao Cyprus Czechia Côte d’Ivoire Denmark Diego Garcia Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard & McDonald Islands Honduras Hong Kong SAR China Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Isle of Man Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macao SAR China Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar (Burma) Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands North Korea North Macedonia Norway Oman Outlying Oceania Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Pitcairn Islands Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Réunion Samoa San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Sint Maarten Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka St...
© » KADIST
Ali Cherri, in conversation with Audrey Norcia In the framework of “ Visite croisée” with Jeu de Paume 3pm Meeting point at Jeu de Paume with Ali Cherri and Osei Bonsu : presentation of the exhibition Somniculus 4.30 pm KADIST : Exhibition tour Conceal, cover with sand, replicate, translate, restore 5pm Conversation between Ali Cherri and Audrey Norcia Ali Cherri is an artist...
© » KADIST
Luka Yuanyuan Yang
2019Composed of three photographic panels, Three Times at Yamato Hotel by Luka Yuanyuan Yang is a part of the artist’s ongoing project Dalian Mirage , a seven act play in a theatre staged as the city of Dalian...
© » KADIST
Javier Castro
2012In the film La Edad de Oro (The Golden Age) Javier Castro asks several children to describe what they want to be when they grow up and what their best career option is in Cuba...
© » KADIST
Charles Avery
2012Since 2005, Charles Avery has devoted his practice to the perpetual description of a fictional island...
© » KADIST
Xiaoyun Chen
2012The lengthy titles in Chen Xiaoyun’s work often appear as colophons to his photographs that invite the viewer to a process of self realization through contemplating the distance between word and image...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
Criticism and Tears: The Emotional is Political in the Marcos State | ArtsEquator Skip to content When a film taps on emotions to distort historical facts, criticism that uses a rational, adversarial voice, above the work and the audiences who enjoy it may fail to dislodge the emotive power of the work’s narrative...
