What to do With Narco Art?

Rodrigo Arenas Betancourt at work.
(Photo: Colartes)

During his long life, Rodrigo Arenas Betancourt, one of his era's most accomplished Colombian sculptors, created works for airports, plazas and museums, commemorating themes of religion, liberty and human rights across Colombia and Mexico,where he lived for 25 years.

But Arenas, who lived from 1919 to 1995, also made one sculpture paying tribute to one of the worst people Colombia has produced: narcotrafficker Pablo Escobar. Now, Colombia may have to decide what to about an artwork which represents the intersection of wealth, crime, art and even sexuality.

The sculpture, called La Familia hangs on a wall of Escobar's El Monaco apartment building in Medellin. It isn't one of the artist's most distinguished works: It portrays sexualized figures standing one atop another, the woman a stereotypicaly voluptuous narcotrafficker's fantasy.

Medellin now plans to demolish the Monaco building in an
effort to change its narco-city image. That's a questionable policy in an era when historical memory is gaining importance. After all, the narcos' extravagant lifestyle demonstrates what happens when a sought-after commodity is prohibited: It makes vicious criminals rich.

La Familia, on a wall of the
El Monaco building in Medellin.

Many narcos, altho not known for their appreciation of fine culture, did collect expensive artworks to show off and to launder their millions. After their deaths or arrests, the art was generally seized and auctioned off by authorities as the ill-gotten gains of criminal enterprise. (However, Pablo Escobar's brother Roberto did recently - and incomprehensibly - win a lawsuit against the government for the value of art and other valuables confiscated from his apartment after the Medellin cartel's collapse in the early 1990s.) Those objects have reentered the world's art market carrying little taint from dirty money.

But what about art created as a tribute to a vicious criminal?

There's no word about why Arenas created the work for Escobar. Did he fear him? Did he admire the man's criminal accomplishments, or his pretentions of nationalist politics? Or did Betancourt just need the money?

According to news reports, Arenas' sculpture may go to Medellin's 'Museo de la Memoria,' which is to commemorate the victims of Medellin's violence. But that hardly seems like an appropriate abode for an eroticized tribute to a mass murderer.

Prometheuus Unchained, in the Casa del Museo de Antioquia.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

A Makeover for Rita

Cyclists observe Rita in the Parque Nacional.

The long-suffering Rita's
graffitied torso.

Rita, 5:30 p.m., the sculpture by Enrique Grau on Carrera Septina in Bogotá's Parque Nacional has become something of an unlikely urban landmark. Standing at the entrance to one of the city's most popular parks, right beside its largest Catholic university, Rita is a prostitute.

Installed in the park in 2002, over the years, Rita has suffered for reasons more related to her location than her profession. Offering large iron plates on one of the city's primary thoroughfares, this Rita tempts not sexually frustrated males, but passersby in search of self expression, often without the redeeming qualities of artistic ability. Poor Rita has become defaced by graffiti and tagging. Soon, Bogotá plans to clean and renovate Rita.

Besides urban neglect and adolescent misbehavior, Rita's condition could also

A poster on a wall in the Santa Fe neighborhood's
red light district says 'Rejection.'

be interpreted as a representation of abuse against women, always a timely issue in Bogotá. And news of her repairs comes at a time when policies about sex work, which is legal in designated 'tolerance zones,' are once again under discussion in the wake of the sexual abuse of a 3-year-old girl taken from an informal day care center located in Bogotá's Santa Fe tolerance zone.

Whether she is honoring prostitution or warning against it, Rita's renovation won't come cheap: 27 million pesos, or about US $1,000 dollars, according to El Tiempo.

Still, it might be worthwhile, if not for the fact that Rita will get graffitied again soon after.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Botero in Chinese?

You could be forgiven for thinking that Fernando Botero, the Colombian artist known for creating, err, 'voluminous' figures had embraced everything Chinese, based on a walk across Plaza Bolivar these days. The plaza's southern end is populated by Botero-like fat female figures, but with Chinese features and much more dynamic poses.

These are in fact works by Chinese artist Xu Hongfei, which the Guardian newspaper describes as "jolly, state-approved sculptures."

The sculptures were displayed in London on exactly the 25th anniversary of the Chinese government's murder of hundreds or thousands of pro-democracy activists on Tiananmen Square. Similarly, here in Bogotá, they provide some superficial fun while the world seems to spin out of control around us.

If you want to see them, then hurry. They'll be gone on Nov. 7.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

A Sound Sculpture?

The recently-installed 'sonic sculpture' at Calle 19 and Carrera 3.

Thanks to massive public outcry by readers of this blog, the city finally got its act together some months ago and installed this sound sculpture at the intersection of Calle 19 and Carrera 3, across from the Centro Colombo-Americano. Bogotá's first 'sonic sculpture,' by Oswaldo Maciá, a Cartagena native who lives in London, is supposed to broadcast the sounds of birds chirping across the traffic lanes onto the sidewalks. However, I haven't noticed anything.

The work is named 'Scene Under Construction,' and was selected from 72 entrants. I suspect that some of the other works would have contributed more to the traffic island.

The sculpture is beside newly-constructed student residences.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

The Mystery of the Sinister Sculptures Solved

I've long wondered about the history of these spooky, haunting sculptures along Carrera 3 behind the Jorge Tadeo University. There's no plaque or other clue about their history.

My mystery was solved recently by a September 1988 edition of Magazin, El Espectador's old Sunday supplement, which I bought from a sidewalk vendor off of Carrera Septima near Las Nieves church. It turns out that the specters are the work of Cuban-American sculptor Galaor Carbonell (born Havana, 1938; died Miami, 1992) during the mid-1980s.

Sadly, Magazin critic Juan Manuel Roca thoroughly pans the statues. "Few times has our view been so attacked, has the scenery been so depraved," he writes. Roca goes on to call the sculptures rigid and inert and without imagination.

"What the devil were they thinking...?" when they placed the statues here, Roca asks, adding: "it's an aggression against public space, against the spectators' eyes."

Carbonell's death only four years later might well have been accelerated by this attack.

Whatever the value of Roca's opinions, the sculptures have survived (except for one, which is missing) and become a point of reference in the neighborhood. Nobody seems to mind them, or perhaps even to notice them.

I like Carbonell's works, even if they don't beautify this particular corner. But they move one to stop and reflect a bit upon unworldly visitors to this unexceptional corner of Bogotá.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

A Sculpture's Sad Legacy

Amongst the alcoholics, prostitutes, illegal street vendors and alcoholic prognosticating taitas stands La Mariposa, by famed Colombian sculptor Edgar Negret, shamefully abandoned. The abstract sculpture, whose name means 'Butterfly', presumably represents hope. Instead, it's a public urinal, a sleeping place for drunks, a refuge for pigeons.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Sculpting Memory in Los Martires

A group of Los Martires residents have been sculpting these monuments in the field beside the Centro Memoria during the past several weeks. The sculptures, which are meant to represent themes of human rights, history and the culture of Los Martires, are to be finished by the end of the month, I was told.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Botero Gets No Respect in Bogotá

A physique sculpture in Chicago, USA.

How quickly can you guess which of these monumental sculptures by Fernando Botero is in the capital of his homeland?

A smoking woman in Armenia.

In the U.S., Italy, Armenia, Berlin and Israel Botero's work gets respect..in Bogotá, it gets tagged.

Man on Horseback, Bogota, Colombia

Woman lying down in Tuscany, Italy.

Man on Horse, Jerusalem, Israel.

In Bogotá, a Botero sculpture means an opportunity for scrawl.

Man on Horseback, Bogota, Colombia

The Botero sculpture in front of the Parque Renacimiento, near the Central Cemetery.

The Hand, in Madrid, Spain.

Woman Seated, Berlin, Germany.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Edgar Negret and Bogotá's Public Sculptures

Edgar Negret, known for his abstract, geometric sculptures died Oct. 11 the day of his 92nd birthday. This is perhaps his most prominent work in Bogotá, La Mariposa (The Buttefly), on Plaza San Victorino. Sadly, the sculpture is neglected and covered with graffiti. But on the positive side, it brightens up the plaza and serves as protection from the rain and as a slide for children.

Other Bogotá street sculptures:

This group of ghostly, spirit-like figures stands near Jorge Tadeo University. 

This fat man on a fat horse on Calle 26 near the German Cementery is the only public sculpture by Botero  in Bogotá.

'The Monument to Life and Disarmament' in Tercer Milenio Park. The monument was made from thoussands of weapons handed in and melted down. Sadly, most of its dozen doves have been stolen by metal scavengers. 

'Rita: 5:30 p.m.' by Enrique Grau, in front of the National Park in Bogotá.  'A monument to ethnic-urban regeneration.'

A steel tree in Tercer Milenio Park. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours