Bye Bye Bogotà

Right now we are on our way back home to Sweden (this is a scheduled post). Visiting Colombia for the first time and meeting almost everyone in the big Colombian family has been something special. Counting Colombia I've been to 23 countries, but it's a big difference between just seeing a country as a tourist (from the outside) and seeing it (from the inside) with the help of those living there. 

This last month here in Colombia I've been thinking a lot about how I want to live my life, what I value most - and what I want with my art. Now I'm ready to start 2012!

more Oscar Muños

video; portrait (self portrait) drawing changing and disappearing as the water disappears from the sink. (I believe the drawing was made out of carbon powder)

Oscar Muños

It's not that often when visiting an exhibition that I feel happy, excited and "this is so good" - and all at the same time. But that's how I felt when I saw Oscar Muños' retrospective exhibition at Museo del Arte del Banco de la republica here in Bogotà! Oscar Muños is one of Colomia's most important contemporary artists and I felt an immediate connection with his art. Muños works with photography, video/video installations and objects with a strong tie to art history's long tradition of depicting as well as with the process of transformation, destruction and reconfiguration. His imagery is mostly based on portraiture (photography and drawing). There is both something elusive and something everlasting in his art. The concept of time seems to be essential. And the act of depicting and the concept of representing.

carbon in water

here you can see the border of the image above; the carbon is floating on water in a box. It's very elusive.

video; Muños is painting a portrait (self portrait I belive) over and over again. But as it is painted only with water on concrete it disappears as the water dries ... and he paints it again and again.

videoinstallation. can't really explain it. it has to been seen in real life. Great though!

Bogotà from the car

the outskirts of Bogotà; a typical roadside restaurant

another place for eating;  they are barbecuing big pieces of meat and corn

I grew up without a car and I don't have a car in Sweden nowadays either. I've never in my life spent as much time in a car as now in Bogotà. According to my Colombian family it's not safe to take photos on the street ... so I've been documenting the street life through the car window. (But you have to hide the camera when stopping for a red light or they might smash the window and steal your camera. They stole my mother in law's handbag that way...)

gold and ceramics

Museo del Oro, Bogotà; fantastic pre-colonial Indian art.

It's like I'm on "pause" - when the rest of the worlds is still turning. But I think my brain is secretly working on something.

Bogotà, Colombia

After two days in Bogotà adjusting to the hight (Bogotà is situated at 2 600 m above sea level) and not being online I'm starting to feel like myself again. Tomorrow we are going to Cartagena and I'm not bringing the computer .... so no blogging until next week, but then I hope to be back with some interesting sketches and photos.