Matarredonda
MATARREDONDA is a photographic narrative realized with the bodies of different men, queer men, homosexual men, heterosexual men, all in search of a moment of freedom, an experience of nudity in a natural environment. They were, unknowingly, elements of narrative in the history of the country and region where the production that takes shape in this series was made.
MATARREDONDA is my sanctuary, my catharsis, their catharsis.
MATARREDONDA is the way to recognize and reconcile the history of my country with my own history, is to recognize that this natural sanctuary, which during my project allowed many to find a moment of freedom and unique eroticism, is in Colombia, on the outskirts of the capital, Bogota and is an exceptionally well preserved place, not by the efforts of society or the government, but by violence.
MATARREDONDA is located in what during my childhood and adolescence (80's and 90's) was popularly known as a corridor of violence, an inhospitable and forbidden place, located on the road that connects Bogotá with the small town of Choachí. There, where the media frequently told us stories of the struggle between guerrillas, army and paramilitaries, the place that (according to the media and the Bogotanos of the time) was a strategic position from which to attack the seat of government and easily take people kidnapped in Bogotá to the impenetrable jungle of the Colombian eastern plains.
The people from Bogotá were afraid to leave the city and take that road, no one took the risk, no one bought, no one cultivated, no one built, no one urbanized. The town of Choachí was isolated despite being a neighbor of the capital and the mountain was preserved with irony, at a time when local legislation and the level of education were of no use to conserve nature.
MATARREDONDA has been my opportunity to understand that I grew up in war, without knowing it. Perhaps the habit to that reality turned it into my normality. Not only the violent political war of the country but also the social war that meant for me to assume my homosexuality in a traditional, macho and religious society.
So it was there in MATARREDONDA that I allowed myself to really lose my fears. Every time I climbed those mountains and appropriated that vast territory I could be free. It was there that I assumed my fascination with the male body as a legitimate and essential part of my personal and artistic development. It was there that I really found myself as a queer, homosexual, artist (I was out of the closet before, but not really free).
MATARREDONDA was the opportunity to understand that there was no reason to pigeonhole or judge desire when taking pictures. It was the opportunity to take a risk, to invite others to be 100% genuine for me (because being naked you can't lie, nothing can be hidden).
MATARREDONDA was to question the scarcity of nudity in Colombian society, which, although it claims to be a "secular" state, maintains old religious values in all its customs.
MATARREDONDA was to understand that I myself could become the link between a person and that intimate moment of freedom.
Thanks to LE LAC A L'EPAULE, L'ecole de Beaux Arts de Nantes and L'atelier Nantes I was able to have months of reflection, understanding and a lot of laboratory work.
