Writing Identity with H of Hippo or notations on the idea of Nation in Latin America

Social landscape, Historiography and memories in displacement are the main obsessions of the artist Nayari Castillo. Using video, text and photography as tools of communication, her installation work relies on site-specific constructs firmly attached to traveling concepts. The interventions engage with history, time and space, claiming a semantic where ancient tools and contemporary devices combine in one and only discourse. Her investigation focuses on questions on traveling, especially in emigrational situations in and around Latin-America. The backbone of the work is set up on the Caribbean post-colonial discourse as a model for post-modern behavior and multicultural thought. For this occasion she will present part of her artistic work and research; with a mix of humor and critic she will dive into one of her most recent productions Smuggling to Paradise, where latin-american identity, translation and post-colonial discourse are strongly visible.

The work comments on the story of the “Napoles Ranch” and its construction. In the 1980’s, Pablo Escobar, the Colombian mafia capo, constructed a thematic park for his endeavors. 200 exotic animals where hidden in an eccentric place. After his assassination by the police, his animals were left behind to die. The hippos survived and after 17 years they are wandering free in the Magdalena river. This artistic intervention of Castillo shows a fantastic trip around a surrealistic archive of the facts.

After the talk of 45min people can participate in an interactive workshop with the artist, who will show the work of other artists that relate to her topics of interest and will facilitate a practical exercise in installation and a discussion.