Palo Enceba’o María Chiquita

2016 - Photography (Photography)

54 3/10 x 44 9/10 inches

José Castrellón


Palo Enceba’o is a project by José Castrellón composed of three photographs, two drawings on metal, and a video work that creates a visual and cultural analogy between the events of January 9th, 1964 in Panama City and the game of palo encebado carried out in certain parts of Panama to celebrate the (US-backed) independence from Colombia. In the game, young men climb a wood post smeared with animal wax to collect a Panamanian flag in return for a bounty. During what is now remembered as Martyrs’ Day, Panamanian students trespassed the fence that separated the American-governed strip of land along the Panama Canal and Panama City to fly a flag and symbolically claim sovereignty over the area that had been turned over to the United States by the Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty in 1903. Effectively, the treaty allowed for the construction of the canal and its use in perpetuity by the US in exchange for a sum of money and the backing of Panama’s independence from Colombia. Dubbed as a threat to the sovereignty of the Canal Zone, the American military shot and killed several of the students involved in the incident (declared martyrs) which escalated the already tense relationship between the countries and eventually aided in the negotiations of the Torrijos-Carter Treaties that returned the Canal Zone to Panama. The image of the students climbing up a light post is likened to the palo encebado game. Through the appropriation of a photograph by Stan Weymann published on the cover of TIME Magazine in January 1964 and two original images, the series Palo enceba’o speaks of the ambiguity of the notion of sovereignty.


José Castrellón works with photography, video, found material and language, moving between the conceptual and documentary realms. Through research, he takes history as a point of departure to inquire into and express anthropological and sociological concerns. He identifies with cultural changes and the impact they have on different places, the cultural modification of people and society, as well as the physical transformation of landscapes, brought about by commercialism, colonialism, geopolitical conflict, and interventions. Castrellón practice is concerned with diffusion, hybridization, and exposure to different cultural forms and their imposition, appropriation, or cannibalism, which emerge on the faces of people or the nature of spaces.


Colors:



Related works sharing similar palette

Absentia
© » KADIST

Tony Oursler

2012

Continuing Oursler’s broader exploration of the moving image, Absentia is one of three micro-scale installations that incorporate small objects and tiny video projections within a miniature active proscenium...

He’s Heir to a Fruit-Juice Empire, but His Main Focus Is Art - via The New York Times
© » LARRY'S LIST

Eugenio López Alonso divides his time between Los Angeles and Mexico, filling both homes with paintings and sculpture....

East London's Vestry House Museum to undergo £4.5million redevelopment
© » THEARTNEWSPER

East London's Vestry House Museum to undergo £4.5million redevelopment Art market Museums & heritage Exhibitions Books Podcasts Columns Technology Adventures with Van Gogh Search Search Museums & Heritage news East London's Vestry House Museum to undergo £4.5million redevelopment The funds to reimagine the museum are part of a wider £17.2m Levelling Up allocation that will help to bolster the district's arts credentials Alexander Morrison 18 December 2023 Share The Vestry House Museum today Courtesy of Vestry House Museum Tucked away in Walthamstow village, the Vestry House Museum has long been an important, if modest, archive of the east London district's history...

Avec près de 800 000 visiteurs, l’exposition Van Gogh au Musée d’Orsay établit son record de fréquentation
© » LE MONDE

Avec près de 800 000 visiteurs, l’exposition Van Gogh au Musée d’Orsay établit son record de fréquentation Cet article vous est offert Pour lire gratuitement cet article réservé aux abonnés, connectez-vous Se connecter Vous n'êtes pas inscrit sur Le Monde ? Inscrivez-vous gratuitement « L’Eglise d’Auvers-sur-Oise vue du chevet » et « Paysage sous un ciel tourmenté », peintures de l’artiste néerlandais Vincent Van Gogh présentées au Musée d’Orsay dans le cadre de l’exposition « Van Gogh/Artaud...

“Sophisticated” Art Collectors Are Facing Less Sympathetic Courts - via Artsy
© » LARRY'S LIST

Courts are more closely scrutinizing how art buyers conduct themselves during a transaction, suggesting due diligence is more important than ever....

Re-plating Mooi Indie
© » KADIST

Bakudapan Food Study Group

2018

Mooi indie (which translates to “Beautiful Indies”) is a term used to depict the beauty of nature in the East Indies during the period of Dutch colonialism in Indonesia...

Frieze reveals shortlist for Frieze Los Angeles Film Award
© » FAD MAGAZINE

Frieze reveals shortlist for Frieze Los Angeles Film Award - FAD Magazine Skip to content By Mark Westall • 26 January 2024 Share — Frieze has revealed the eight emerging filmmakers shortlisted for the 2024 Deutsche Bank Frieze Los Angeles Film Award...

The Otherworldly Dresses of Seiran Tsuno
© » HIGH FRUCTOSE

Seiran Tsuno's ghostly dresses rest above the bearer and recontextualize the human body...

Frieze Los Angeles 2024 details revealed.
© » FAD MAGAZINE

Frieze Los Angeles 2024 details revealed...

Weekly Picks: Malaysia (4–10 Mar 2019)
© » ARTS EQUATOR

Weekly Picks: Malaysia (4–10 Mar 2019) | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Weekly To Do March 4, 2019 For events in Penang this week, go to the Penang Free Sheet ...

5 Standout Works from Judy Chicago’s Groundbreaking Career
© » GALERIE MAGAZINE

5 Standout Works from Judy Chicago’s Groundbreaking Career - Galerie Subscribe Art + Culture Interiors Style + Design Emerging Artists Discoveries Artist Guide More Creative Minds Life Imitates Art Real estate Events Video Galerie House of Art and Design Subscribe About Press Advertising Contact Us Follow Galerie Sign up to receive our newsletter Subscribe “Judy Chicago: Herstory,” 2023...

Potosi
© » KADIST

Antonio Vega Macotela

2022

The mines at Potosí are both the site and subject of this work, also titled Potosí, by Antonio Vega Macotela...

Podcast 58: Research and Practice in Performance-Making
© » ARTS EQUATOR

Podcast 58: Research and Practice in Performance-Making | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Performance (Podcast) May 6, 2019 Duration: 29 min As emerging art-makers having recently graduated from B...

The New Breed Of Art Collector Who Is Happy To Spend Millions Online - via Forbes
© » LARRY'S LIST

The record price paid online for a painting has increased tenfold this year, and with a series of eye-catching art fairs and auctions over the next couple of months, it could be broken yet again....

Straight Flush - The Balfour Declaration (1917)
© » KADIST

Bady Dalloul

2017

The Great Game is a series of works composed of a number of card combinations illustrated by the faces of key political figures shaping the geopolitical landscape in the Middle East...

Gucci’s New York SoHo Store Is Revamped With Electrifying Art
© » ARTNET

Freshly-appointed creative director Sabato De Sarno is realizing his sleek new vision for Gucci in both his fashion collections and art curation...

Pandemic in the Philippines: A cultural sector on its own
© » ARTS EQUATOR

Pandemic in the Philippines: A cultural sector on its own | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Articles August 17, 2020 By Katrina Stuart Santiago (2,200 words, 8-minute read) When I was first asked to write about “cultural leadership” in the Philippines, I turned up a blank...

The Paintings of Keya Tama
© » HIGH FRUCTOSE

Keya Tama is a South African artist who says he aims to "reunite old and new through contrasting yet unified iconography." Tama's talent for crafting interlocking creatures, either in the backgrounds of his paintings or in the form of murals, also recalls the work of M...

Eel Pie Island Summer Opening 2023 | Londonist
© » LONDONIST

Eel Pie Island Summer Opening 2023 | Londonist The Secretive Eel Pie Island Is Open To Visitors This Weekend By Will Noble Will Noble The Secretive Eel Pie Island Is Open To Visitors This Weekend Nothing to see here...

The Simpson Verdict
© » KADIST

Kota Ezawa

2002

The Simpson Verdict is a three-minute animation by Kota Ezawa that portrays the reading of the verdict during the OJ Simpson trial, known as the “most publicized” criminal trial in history...