Papaver Somniferum explores the economic, ecological, and social implications of opium poppy cultivation and exploitation. To do so, the project contrasts the exploitation of the plant in Afyon, Turkey, with that in Colombia, highlighting the contradictory attitudes toward poppies depending on the context in which they are grown. In contrast to Turkey, where poppy plantations are part of the country's everyday agricultural life, in Colombia they represent an environmental, economic, and social problem.
With regard to the first point, the cultivation and subsequent fumigation of the plant threatens the extinction of irreplaceable natural reserves. From an economic and social point of view, poppies represent the only source of income and survival for thousands of farmers in remote areas. This population is subject to strong repressive actions by local authorities that represent an ineffective response in relation to the complexity of the drug production and consumption issue.
This project consists of three parts:
- Photographic Series: Papaver Sominferum.
- Installation: Terra incognita.
- Photographic Series: A ras de tierra.
Papaver Somniferum.
1999 - 2003.
Amapola manchada. 2000. Fotografía en B/N y tintillas fotográficas. 120 x 120 cm.
Campo N. Impresión Lambda. 50 x 73 cm. 2000.
Campo R. Fotografía a color. 120 x 120 cm. 2001.
Campo A. 1999. Cibachrome. 100 x 100 cm
Sin título (díptico). Impresión inkjet. 73 x 100 cm. 2000.
Flor y cápsula. Cibachrome. 100 x 100 cm. 1999.
Judicial Triptych
Black and white/color photography
120 x 300 cm.
1999.
Judicial Triptych emerged as a response to a press photograph showing two opium poppy growers detained at a police station for their alleged illegal activities. The work contrasts this photograph with two images of poppy capsules that were conceived from the reworking of the scratching process, an activity through which the latex is extracted from the plant. The substance extracted through this process is then sold by the peasants, which, in a way, represents a promise for a better life."
Therefore, the images of the capsule created by the artist include ornamental inscriptions that highlight the precious nature of the sap and its economic importance.
The work questions the institutional discourse that criminalizes the cultivation of the plant in the country by proposing an unstable relationship between the documentary image and the poppy capsule as a precious object.
Extended version
Terra incognita.
Lead, fiberglass, and polyester resin.
2000 - 2002.
Terra incognita explores aspects related to the conditions in rural areas of Colombia where opium poppies are cultivated. The project investigates how these territories are located and conceived based on photographic documentation of them taken during aerial reconnaissance flights by the anti-narcotics police.
The piece initially recreates the experience of seeing these places from the air, and then, based on a detailed review of the small-scale situations presented in each of the rocks, confronts us with problematic aspects of life in those places. These representations, based on testimonies and interviews with poppy growers, confront us with a desolate and violent reality that contrasts dramatically with the aerial view. Thus, the viewer experiences a separation that is suggested not only as perceptual but as a split from reality and the ideological constructs that sustain it.
Extended version.
At Ground Level.
Photographic Series
2003.
At ground level consists of six large-format color photographs that use the landscape genre to address the conditions of the Colombian countryside and its inhabitants.
The photographic series is based on the work Terra Incognita, 2000-2002. It presents scenes of desolation, loneliness, and up-rootedness, where emptiness seems to be a constant presence. In a sense, the absence of references and the silence that accompanies them confronts us with distant realities frozen in time. Spaces where certainty and hope seem to have no place.
In traditional landscape painting, the viewer's eye is delighted by the encounter of elements that enliven the scene. In At ground level, the scene obeys a symbolic scheme where the few elements are the center of the staging. The cold and austere environment emphasizes and concentrates the drama and condition of a human being deprived of horizons.
Cultivo. Fotografía. 93x138 cm. 2003.
Grupo. Fotografía. 93x138 cm. 2003.
Huida. Fotografía. 93x138 cm. 2003.