The general conceptual foundation for these two installations shown at the group exhibition “Metaphors for Peace” (Centro Cultural Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Colombian Embassy, Madrid, Spain. October 2023/February 2024) rest on the premise that Living Beings are essentially territories; Beyond the physical bodies, life manifests in territories of sensitivity, consciousness and knowledge, where constant transformation and diversity are “Multinatural” (in words of anthropologist Viveiros de Castro- 1998): “the unity of Nature is expressed in a vast diversity of cultures (...)” including animals, plants and the Earth itself as integral part of human culture. In these artworks, Culture and Nature are not seen as opposed, antagonistic terms, but instead as mutually inclusive and interdependent dimensions of reality: physical bodies and organisms are an expression of Culture, as much as human Language is also an expression of Nature. As an artist, this “Unity in Diversity” served as the basis to understand and approach the abstract and subjective concept of “Peace”, the exhibition’s central conceptual theme proposed by the curatorial team. 

“The quipu, or knot register (also called khipu), was a method used by the Incas and other ancient Andean cultures to keep records and communicate information. In the absence of an alphabetic writing system, this simple and highly portable device achieved a surprising degree of precision and flexibility. Using a variety of colors, ropes and sometimes several hundred knots tied in various ways and at different heights, the quipu could record dates, statistics, accounts and even represent, in abstract form, key episodes from traditional folk stories and poetry. (...)” 

-World History Encyclopedia.

My experience as a Colombian artist is that at the root of violence is extreme language, a “black and white” language that is basic, flat and unable to find nuances, integration of complexity and gray areas of identity…I translate the often quoted aphorism "War is the continuation of policy with other means.” as “Violence is the failure of language”, but also is the end result of extreme language. The installation is an attempt to find an artistic language that integrates extreme opposites into a complex, interwoven gray identity where light and shadow are simultaneous in a sort of taoist Yin-Yang dance. 

Javier Felix

Paper is one of the most sensitive and delicate materials that exist: it is vulnerable to both UV rays, carbon dioxide released by human breath, dust, water and even, just by touching it, we leave an imprint on it. With this first reflection in mind, the project heads down the unorthodox path of giving three-dimensionality to paper, creating blocks of several layers (hundreds of sheets of paper transformed into solid blocks) that are then intervened through carving, drawing and painting, in turn relating each piece as a "puzzle" or "jigsaw puzzle". 
As a result, the installation is a relationship of forms within a certain "game of fit", which allowed me to communicate a fundamental issue about empathy in human relationships: the need for space…space to exist, space to share and in turn, opening spaces within ourselves for others to exist. The three-dimensionality of paper - and the way in which it has been worked - generates tactile sensations, thus, empathy (under the filter of this installation) is understood primarily as an extension of the sense of "touch”.