Abstract
Our essay tells the story of the First International Biennial of Contemporary Art held in Cartagena de Indias from February to April 2014, and the creation of an artist activist collective forged as a result of the lack of support for the region’s artists. The Biennial was designed to attract the globetrotting art elite and promote Cartagena as an artistic center at a time when the state was attempting to improve its international image and present a new Colombia—one committed to peace. A group of local artists created an artist collective, entitled the Community of Visual Artists of Cartagena and Bolívar (CAVCA) to draw attention to the colonial processes in operation. CAVCA developed a repertoire of strategies to launch their complaints, including art-activist postering, digital vandalism, the parodying of ‘great art’ through performance, and the staging of mock funerals through the creation of Las Meninas Emputás!—a performance project that consisted of disruptive interventions online and in public spaces during the Biennial and in the years since. By comparing the strategies the Biennial employed with those generated by CAVCA, our chapter speaks to the sustainability of colonial logic through the arts and the conditions of possibility for its undoing.
With appreciation to Muriel Angulo, Alexa Cuesta Flórez, Helena Martin-Franco, Guadalupe González González, Consuelo Salas Leguizamón, and Linda Mae Richards for their encouragement and assistance developing this chapter.
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Notes
- 1.
On politics and Biennials, see Caroline Jones, ‘Biennial Culture: A Longer History,’ in The Biennial Reader: An Anthology of Large-Scale Perennial Exhibitions of Contemporary Art, ed. Elena Filipovic, Marieke Van Hal, and Solveig Øvstebø (Bergen: Bergen Kursthall, 2010), 66–86.
- 2.
The Ministry of Culture primarily provides support for cultural initiatives such as the BIACI Foundation allocating funds through the Programa Nacional de Estímulos as well as granting permission to use spaces under the Ministry’s jurisdiction. The Ministry of Culture and its regional entities have no direct involvement in the selection processes or the content of the projects they support. Nevertheless, one of the harshest critiques that CAVCA made was the permissiveness and complicity of cultural authorities in the use of local infrastructure and public funds at the service of the BIACI Foundation’s agenda. See ‘Manifiesto Emputao!’ CAVCA: Comunidad de Artistas Visuales de Cartagena y Bolívar, February 7, 2014. http://cavca-cartagena.blogspot.mx/p/manifiesto-emputao.html. For more on the National Incentives Program see ‘Programa Nacional de Estímulos,’ MinCultura. http://www.mincultura.gov.co/planes-y-programas/programas/programa-nacional-estimulos/Paginas/default.aspx.
- 3.
Immanuel Wallerstein, The Modern World-System: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World-Economy in the Sixteenth Century (New York: Academic Press, 1976), 226.
- 4.
In order to meet the expectations of the 1991 Constitution (which defines the political system as a ‘unitary decentralized republic’ and introduce reforms granting certain levels of autonomy to the 32 territorial entities), efforts to decentralize aspects of Colombian administration were set into motion. Amongst them was the creation of the Ministry of Culture (1997) and the National System for Culture. Fundamental to their objectives was the decentralization of cultural administration, and the promotion of civic participation at a local and regional level. To these ends, the Regional Development initiative was launched, which consisted of the creation of cultural public entities in provinces and municipalities, as well as training in arts administration, awards and recognition for local cultural initiatives, and in 2010, the creation of the Strategy for Regional Promoters. The Ministry of Culture acknowledges some of the shortcomings and limitations of these initiatives in Sistema Nacional de Cultura: Estado, Retos y Perspectivas (Bogotá: Ministerio de Cultura, 2013). http://www.mincultura.gov.co/areas/fomento-regional/Documents/sistema_nal_cultura_FINAL_baja.pdf.
- 5.
For example, Andrea Fanta Castro, Alejandro Herrero-Olaizola, and Chloe Rutter-Jensen write that conflict ‘continues to permeate [Colombia’s] political discourse and cultural production (almost) to the point of no return.’ Andrea Fanta Castro, Alejandro Herrero-Olaizola, and Chloe Rutter-Jensen, ‘Introduction: Territories of Conflict through Colombian Cultural Studies,’ in Territories of Conflict: Traversing Colombia through Cultural Studies, ed. Andrea Fanta Castro, Alejandro Herrero-Olaizola, and Chloe Rutter-Jensen (New York: University of Rochester Press, 2017), 1.
- 6.
‘Estadísticas del conflicto armado en Colombia,’ Centro Nacional de Memoria Histórica. http://www.centrodememoriahistorica.gov.co/micrositios/informeGeneral/estadisticas.html.
- 7.
For example, the Havana Biennial (1984) was born in the utopian context of the Cuban Revolution, and was part of Cuba’s strategy for crafting a positive image of itself and fighting the isolation imposed by the United States. As well, the Johannesburg Biennial , which began in 1995 after years of isolation and cultural boycotts, attempted to formulate an international platform at a time when the nation was grappling with the legacy of apartheid.
- 8.
For centuries, Cartagena was a focal point of confrontation between the principal European powers vying for control of the ‘New World.’ Defensive fortifications were built by the Spanish in 1586 and extended until the eighteenth century, leaving it as an eminent and extensive example of military architecture of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries recognized by UNESCO as having outstanding universal value. Today, Cartagena has a population of nearly 850,000, and exists as two cities: one inside the colonial Spanish wall that caters to tourists, and one outside, where most Colombian people live. As a World Heritage site, it already receives an influx of international funds through tourism and real estate speculation, which have caused processes of gentrification in which the people and the culture of the city are being devalued. The period between 1950 and 2000 has been described as the ‘second golden age of Cartagena’ due to the development of the petrochemical sector and port service expansion projects. As well, the second half of the twentieth century brought a new appreciation for the arts with the reopening of The Institute of Music and Fine Arts in 1958, and the creation of several galleries, museums, and festivals, and made Cartagena the ideal host for cultural events and tourism.
- 9.
See Jones, ‘Biennial Culture,’ 69, on the contemporary art biennial’s links to nineteenth-century expositions, tourism, and spectacular urbanism.
- 10.
George Yudicé, The Expediency of Culture: Uses of Culture in the Global Era (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003).
- 11.
Our translation. Dussel understands neocolonialism as the ways in which the role once played by Spain or Portugal in these Latin American countries is substituted by a self-imposed dependency on other European or North American countries. These elites adapt to an empire ‘in turn,’ reproducing the colonial logic that governed their relationship to Spain or Portugal in their relationship to other actors. Enrique Dussel, Filosofía de la cultura y la liberación (Ciudad de México: UACM, 2006), 30.
- 12.
World Bank, ‘World Development Indicators.’ https://data.worldbank.org/indicators/SI.POVERTY.GINI.
- 13.
Informe Nacional de Desarrollo Humano 2011. Colombia Rural: Razones para la esperanza. Resumen Ejecutivo (Bogotá: PNUD, 2011), 50. http://www.co.undp.org/content/colombia/es/home/library/human_development/informe-nacional-de-desarrollo-humano-2011.html.
- 14.
Judith Butler, Notes Towards a Performative Theory of Assembly (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015), 34.
- 15.
Following Yates McKee, we use the term ‘art system’ as a way to ‘displace the deeply engrained figure of the “art world”.’ Where ‘art world’ connotes a ‘unitary, self-enclosed cultural universe of like-minded cogniscenti making, viewing, judging, and sometimes buying and selling works of art,’ the phrase ‘art system’ refers to the core elements of that system that remain within ‘the relatively comfortable habitus of “art” as a professional field.’ Yates McKee, Strike Art: Contemporary Art and the Post-Occupy Condition (London: Verso, 2016), 12.
- 16.
It is interesting to note the distinct geographic locations of the artists - Cuesta Flórez based in Cartagena is closest to the site and her livelihood is most directly connected to her reputation there; Angulo, based in Bogotá, moves between the centralized dynamics of Bogotá and its dependent province of Bolívar. Martín-Franco, based in Montreal since 1999, extends the reach of this alliance into the Northern Hemisphere and provides a comparative perspective to how notions of precarity are lived differently, and how activists’ practices travel and unfold in diverse sites. In our conversation, Martin-Franco commented that she has never done this type of protest work in Montreal since she has been unable to find other artists to take these risks with her. She says that many people would support her if she were to do it herself, but they are not willing to protest alongside her, and she insists protest is collective work. Although there is frustration in Montreal on many fronts, she attributes this unwillingness to engage to fear: as there is more support, there is more to lose. Helena Martin-Franco, Skype interview, January 9, 2018. Quotations by the artists in Spanish are included in both languages. We find it important to retain the original language the artists work and live in, offering translation only as a resource to readers who otherwise would not have access.
- 17.
Ibid.
- 18.
Butler, Notes, 65.
- 19.
‘Manifiesto Emputao!’.
- 20.
Ibid.
- 21.
In his decolonial theory of transmodernity, Enrique Dussel takes Emmanuel Levinas’s notion of exteriority to situate the Other historically and politically, and uses it to refer to the totality of alterity, considering ‘lo declarado por la Modernidad como la Exterioridad desechada, no valorizada, lo “inútil” de las culturas [that which Modernity has declared as discarded, non-valuable exteriority, what is “useless” of Other cultures].’ Enrique Dussel, Filosofías del Sur (Ciudad de México: Ediciones Akal, 2015), 29.
- 22.
Ashton Cooper, ‘Exploring the Presence of the Past at Colombia’s First Biennial,’ Blouin Art Info, February 7, 2014. http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/1006822/exploring-the-presence-of-the-past-at-colombias-first.
- 23.
Ashton Cooper, ‘Notes from Colombia: Why the World Needs Another Biennial,’ Blouin Art Info, April 4, 2014. http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/1022190/notes-from-colombia-why-the-world-needs-another-biennial.
- 24.
Ibid.
- 25.
Dussel, 31.
- 26.
Our translation, Dussel, 50.
- 27.
Helena Martin-Franco, ‘CAVCA Entierra la BIACI,’ YouTube video, April 10, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL6XhSMVHlyW_zOWj9R1ZUJMxdHannr1O5&v=E2XvvIUv66M.
- 28.
In places like Cartagena, where there is limited access to technology , and many do not have artist webpages , Facebook is an essential tool in the dissemination of artwork.
- 29.
Lauren Berlant, Cruel Optimism (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2011), 192.
- 30.
Jorge Peñuela, ‘Elogio de las Emputadas Cartageneras,’ Liberatorio.org , April 11, 2014. http://liberatorio.org/?p=1638.
- 31.
Butler, Notes, 34.
- 32.
‘En estos días me estaba leyendo un texto muy interesante de Judith Butler en donde decía que estas personas que están invizibilizadas por la sociedad, que tienen ese estatus de precariedad, no tienen ni siquiera el estatus de persona. Y si nos invizibilizan más aún, pues imagínate cómo quedamos. Yo creo que es una cosa supremamente—una falta de ética total. Y yo creo que eso es lo que más emputá me tiene.’ ‘Emputaó testimony by Muriel Angulo,’ ed. Helena Martin-Franco, February 26, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sThaywRenLI.
- 33.
Our translation. Dussel, 47.
- 34.
Judith Butler, Precarious Lives: The Powers of Mourning and Violence (London: Verso, 2003), xx.
- 35.
Judith Butler and Athena Athansiou, Dispossession: The Performative in the Political (London: Polity, 2013), 197.
- 36.
Paula Moya, ‘Who We Are and From Where We Speak,’ Transmodernity (Fall 2011): 82–83.
- 37.
Muriel Angulo, ‘¿El nuevo traje del emperador?’ CAVCA: Comunidad de Artistas Visuales de Cartagena y Bolívar, September 4, 2014. http://cavca-cartagena.blogspot.mx/p/la-meninas-emputas.html.
- 38.
Butler, Notes, 69.
References
Angulo, Muriel. ‘¿El nuevo traje del emperador.’ CAVCA: Comunidad de Artistas Visuales de Cartagena y Bolívar, September 4, 2014. http://cavca-cartagena.blogspot.mx/p/la-meninas-emputas.html.
Berlant, Lauren. Cruel Optimism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2011.
Butler, Judith. Precarious Lives: The Powers of Mourning and Violence. London: Verso, 2003.
———. Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015.
Butler, Judith, and Athena Athansiou. Dispossession: The Performative in the Political. London: Polity, 2013.
Castro, Andrea Fanta, Alejandro Herrero-Olaizola, and Chloe Rutter-Jensen. ‘Introduction: Territories of Conflict through Colombian Cultural Studies.’ In Territories of Conflict: Traversing Colombia through Cultural Studies, edited by Andrea Fanta Castro, Alejandro Herrero-Olaizola, and Chloe Rutter-Jensen, 1–22. New York: University of Rochester Press, 2017.
CAVCA: Comunidad de Artistas Visuales de Cartagena y Bolívar. ‘Manifiesto Emputao!’ February 7, 2014. http://cavca-cartagena.blogspot.mx/p/manifiesto-emputao.html.
Centro Nacional de Memoria Histórica. ‘Estadísticas del conflicto armado en Colombia.’ http://www.centrodememoriahistorica.gov.co/micrositios/informeGeneral/estadisticas.html.
Cooper, Ashton. ‘Notes from Colombia: Why the World Needs Another Biennial.’ Blouin Art Info, April 4, 2014. http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/1022190/notes-from-colombia-why-the-world-needs-another-biennial.
———. ‘Exploring the Presence of the Past at Colombia’s First Biennial.’ Blouin Art Info, February 7, 2014. http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/1006822/exploring-the-presence-of-the-past-at-colombias-first.
Dussel, Enrique. Filosofía de la cultura y la liberación. Ciudad de México: UACM, 2006.
Informe Nacional de Desarrollo Humano 2011. Colombia Rural: Razones para la esperanza. Resumen Ejecutivo. Bogotá: PNUD, 2011. http://www.co.undp.org/content/colombia/es/home/library/human_development/informe-nacional-de-desarrollo-humano-2011.html.
Jones, Caroline. ‘Biennial Culture: A Longer History.’ In The Biennial Reader: An Anthology of Large-Scale Perennial Exhibitions of Contemporary Art, edited by Elena Filipovic, Marieke Van Hal, and Solveig Øvstebø, 66–86. Bergen: Bergen Kursthall, 2010.
Martin-Franco, Helena. ‘CAVCA Entierra la BIACI.’ YouTube video, April 10, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL6XhSMVHlyW_zOWj9R1ZUJMxdHannr1O5&v=E2XvvIUv66M.
———, ed. ‘Emputaó testimony by Muriel Angulo.’ February 26, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sThaywRenLI.
———. Interviewed by Kimberly Richards and Martha Herrara-Lasso. January 9, 2018.
McKee, Yates. Strike Art: Contemporary Art and the Post-Occupy Condition. London: Verso, 2016.
Ministerio de Cultura. ‘Programa Nacional de Estímulos.’ MinCultura. http://www.mincultura.gov.co/planes-y-programas/programas/programa-nacional-estimulos/Paginas/default.aspx.
———. Sistema Nacional de Cultura: Estado, Retos y Perspectivas. Bogotá: Ministerio de Cultura, 2013. http://www.mincultura.gov.co/areas/fomento-regional/Documents/sistema_nal_cultura_FINAL_baja.pdf.
Moya, Paul. ‘Who We Are and From Where We Speak.’ Transmodernity (Fall 2011): 82–83.
Peñuela, Jorge. ‘Elogio de las Emputadas Cartageneras.’ Liberatorio.org , April 11, 2014. http://liberatorio.org/?p=1638.
Wallerstein, Immanuel. The Modern World-System: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World-Economy in the Sixteenth Century. New York: Academic Press, 1976.
World Bank. ‘World Development Indicators.’ https://data.worldbank.org/indicators/SI.POVERTY.GINI.
Yudicé, George. The Expediency of Culture: Uses of Culture in the Global Era. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003.
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Herrera-Lasso Gonzalez, M., Richards, K.S. (2019). ‘CAVCA Buries BIACI’: Activating Decolonial Tools in Cartagena de Indias. In: Alvarez, N., Lauzon, C., Zaiontz, K. (eds) Sustainable Tools for Precarious Times. Contemporary Performance InterActions. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11557-9_10
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