Juan Manuel Echavarría worked as a writer for some 30 years and published two novels before turning to the fine arts. Since then, the artist has focused on his  home country of Colombia and its decades-long civil  war. During this period, four million people have become refugees and lost their land. Echavarría's video projection La Bandeja de Bolívar: 1999 [Bolívar's Platter] begins with a frame showing only one object-one with great historical significance: a serving platter belonging to Simón Bolívar. Born in 1783, Bolívar was the founder of the Republic  of Gran Colombia and became its first president in 1821. His merits as a statesman earned him the epithet “El Libertador” (The Liberator). After repeated  uprisings in the greater Colombian republic, how -  ever, Bolívar stepped down in 1830 and died that  same year of tuberculosis. After this, the viewer sees nine further shots of the serving platter, now witnessing how it is smashed  into ever smaller and smaller shards each time, until it is completely destroyed. [...]

Claudia Seelmann
Translation: Elizabeth Gahbler


Catalogue excerpt
fast forward 2. The Power of Motion
Media Art Sammlung Goetz
Editors: Ingvild Goetz and Stephan Urbaschek
Ostfildern, Hatje Cantz, 2010

Juan Manuel Echavarría, La Bandeja de Bolívar: 1999, 1999
Single-channel video projection, color, sound
Edition 3/3
4"


Juan Manuel Echavarría, Bocas de Ceniza, 2003
Single-channel video projection, color, sound
Edition 3/3
18' 06"