Treno
Treno, 2007
Exhibition support 2007: Alonso Garcés Galería.
Exhibition support 2009: “Actos del Habla”, Museo de Arte Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá.
Canto fúnebre, 14 minutes long, is a sound video installation of two or more projections facing each other. It constructs a dialogue between two banks of the Cauca River in Colombia, submerging the spectator between the growth of the water and the screams through unanswered calls. We witness a trenodia: a funeral dirge for a political catastrophe. It is a lament for the victims. In this case the lament is both visual and sonorous, the space between the two screens is filled with image and sound, silences and shadows. The Dolby 5.1 sound acts as a platform for a territory where the flow of water and the voice evoke loss and violence.
TRENO, double screen, 2007
The forces of the torrent swirl, grow within us and rise to the surface. Human voices echo in this thicket. These are calls; voices that travel through remote silences, in the darkness of the deep waters. It is working in us the power of a subtle allegory that refers us to war, violence among men, and mourning. The power of the allegory consists precisely in taking us to that state of immersion in the current, which places us in a reflective place, although not sought, almost subjected to expectation, where involuntary relationships flow on human misfortune in violence. It touches the translucent background behind the thought, linking us intimately to those forces in contradiction that is an unstoppable torrent: war.
María Belén Saez de Ibarra, curator.
TRENO, Waterweavers, Bard Graduate Center New York, 2014.
TECHNICAL DATA
Video installation of 2 or more projections
Two screens facing each other
Sound: 5.1
Duration: 15 min
2007
EXHIBITIONS
— Contemporary Art and Photojournalism in Colombia. Holland, 2018.
— Les Abattoirs Museum of Toulouse, France, 2017.
— “Waterweavers, The River in the Colombian Contemporary Visual and Material Culture”. Bard Graduate Center, New York, 2014. Casa de las Americas, Washington, Washington, 2015. Conde Duque, Madrid, 2015.
— International Image Festival, Manizales, 2010.
— For You”, Daros-Latinamerica Museum. Switzerland. April 25 to September 6, 2009.
— “Don’t stare at the sun”. Center of Contemporary Art, “Znaki Czasu” in Torun, Poland. 2009.
— Speech acts at the Art Museum of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, 2009.
— Video installation of sound and photography, Alonso Garcés Gallery. 2008.
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
– Daros Latinamerica Collection. Zurich, 2007.
– Acquisition Award, Gilberto Alzate Avendaño Foundation, Bogota.
– Banco de la República, Bogotá.
SERIALS
In Treno he is not literally narrating an anecdote, but feeding on the metaphor of the river to talk about impotence and distance, about the feeling of staying on two shores.
Treno, Diptych
Video silkscreen printing on stainless steel plate
Edition 6
Dimensions: 98 X 63 cm
200
Map (Treno)
Digital photography
Edition 5
Dimensions: 1,10 m X 1,50 m
2007
OBRA
The place of the spectator in Treno is paradoxical, he is simultaneously on one side and on the other of the river, and he is also in the middle of the torrent of waters, from there they hear the voices; the cry reaches the dimensions of song, as it circulates through space. In Echeverri’s installation, speaking in song becomes a lament that finds no answer on the other shore, the bridge has been broken and the tumultuous sound of the river drowns out the voices.
Gustavo Chirolla, philosopher
INSTALLATION
BEHIND THE SCENES
PLANS
CREDITS
General Director: Clemencia Echeverri
Camera: Mauricio Bernal and Clemencia Echeverri
Camera assistant and video editor: Diego León
Second Assistant Camera: Lucas Jaramillo
Sound: Clemencia Echeverri
Sound design: 5.1 Daniel Prieto
Photography: Camilo Echeverri
