
Ink and graphite and golden thread over paper sculpture 25 x 95 cm 2018



Ink and graphite and golden thread over paper sculpture 25 x 95 cm 2018
Patria Potestas
"Patria Potestas" is a work that, through the delicacy of drawing, confronts us with the brutality of institutionalized violence in Colombia, particularly between 2002 and 2008. During this period, the Colombian military carried out a series of civilian murders, known as "false positives", with the aim of presenting them as combat deaths in order to receive monetary rewards. In this context, the work raises a profound question about the value of human life in the face of the state's dynamics of power, economy, and violence.
The drawing shows feet emerging from gladiolus flowers, a symbol of death in Colombian funeral ceremonies, which here becomes an ambiguous symbol, where the threat of death is associated with the expression "poner a chupar gladiolo" (literally, "to make someone suck gladiolus"), a phrase from the popular neighborhoods that refers to lethal violence.
Each foot is tied with a golden thread around the big toe, from which hangs a tag showing the amount paid to soldiers for each corpse presented as a "combat death," reflecting the economic transaction underlying the murder of innocent civilians. This element of the work evokes the impersonality and coldness with which the victims of this macabre strategy were treated, reducing them to figures and rewards.
The frame, made in the Rococo style, reinforces the critique of the ostentatious and deliberately superficial character of the Colombian state. Rococo, known for its extravagance and emphasis on ornamentation, becomes here a symbol of the indifference and excess of a government that values statistics and monetary rewards more than human lives. The larvae of flies drawn in the frame allude to the decomposition of bodies and the permanence of death in the social and political sphere.
Taken as a whole, "Patria Potestas" serves as a visual metaphor for the structural violence that has marked Colombia. It not only recalls and denounces the crimes of the false positives but also becomes a means to confront and dismantle the official narrative, inviting us to reflect on the relationship between death, money, and power within the Colombian context.