Ejercicios de memoria, Líderes asesinados (Visual Arts)

« Exercises for Memory, murdered leaders » Installation. Wood, old clothes, black thread, nails, lace, sound. Dimensions: 250X250X330 cm. 2021. In the work «Memory for exercises, murdered leaders», Rodríguez Triana works around the assassinations of social leaders in Colombia following the signing of the peace agreement between the Juan Manuel Santos’ government and the FARC guerrillas. Around 350 social leaders have been assassinated in Colombia between 2016 and 2020. A number that continues to increase day by day, while the government of the current president Iván Duque keeps silent.

Rodríguez Triana builds the Colombian map using old clothes which she has collected from people who were born and live in Colombia. Clothes that the artist has smeared with mud. On this map, the artist marks with nails the places where social leaders have been assassinated. Later, Rodríguez Triana weaves with black thread the route of these murders chronologically: from the first occurrence in 2016 to the last one registered in January 2021. The black thread is held at its corners by pieces of lead, the material from which bullets are made.

While the public looks at this piece that lies on the ground, the voice of the artist is heard reading the list of the names of the social leaders murdered in her country. Assassinations that are sustained over the silence of the other inhabitants of Colombia.