In 2018 I received an institutional invitation to travel to Colombia and work on Conflict Landscapes, it could have been an amazing opportunity to learn but there was also the risk of it becoming a big art-washing operation – wanted or not – so I started traveling the country to meet the communities involved in the conflict or affected by it.

I met the indigenous communities in the South, West and North, the Black community of Palenque, I met the Army, the Police and the FARC guerrilla that fought against them for 60 years to control the country. I met farmers preserving the diversity of Amazonian flora, those contrasting soil contamination, the countryside bourgeoisie owning a disproportionate amount of land making it impossible for communities to self sustain themselves.

I learnt about the thin line separating beauty and spilled blood that defines Colombia, about targeted killings of social activists, of the natural richness that was preserved just because the government couldn’t put its hands on it because of the conflict.  The peace agreement signed between the main actors of the conflict is not being implemented by the government, the economic crisis is crippling the country and Corona Virus was just the last hit the corrupted government wasn’t able to deal with.

The population is revolting, and while the rightwing ex-president Uribe declared that protesters should be shot, President Duque gave carte blanche to the army to do so.

More than 47 people were murdered already, without counting those injured both permanently and temporarily and the documented series of other abuses.

I would like to give back to Colombia for the wonderful months I spent there and all I learnt, and I feel like the best I can do now is economic support to grassroots movements in areas where this help makes a difference. With advisory from local contacts I chose to sell some of the works I produced while there to fund the activities of Fundación Actua, based in the remote Amazons area of Puerto Leguizamo, Putumayo.

I decided to avoid traditional funding websites to be sure of not losing money for transfer services.
I’ll personally cover printing and shipping costs to be sure of sending 100% of the funds collected to the organization.