'Malicia Indigena'

A cocaine collage by Colombian artist Pedro Manrique Figueroa.

This exhibition, entitled 'Malicia Indigena,' was held recently in Los Andes University's Santo Domingo exhibition hall, on Jimenez Ave.

The title could be translated literally as 'Indigenous Malice,' but actually means something different. 'Indigenous' more properly means 'natively developed,' and 'malice' something more like 'mischief,' 'trickery' or even 'ingenuity'. The concept, as I understand it, refers to native-born Colombian abilities to deceive others, particularly foreigners, who supposedly have exploited Colombia thru history. The idea's been used specifically to refer to narcotraffickers' success at shipping their cargoes north by outsmarting those gringoes.

The exhibition includes images of the 'degenerate art' which the Nazis tried to destroy. That's timely now because of the huge trove of such art found recently in Germany, as well as reports that German-Colombian bookseller Karl Buchholz had traded in such art before the war.

What's really real here, and what isn't? I was never certain.

Counterfeit indigenous sculptures.

'The future is in drugs.'

Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels: 'Politics is the highest art...and we are feel we are artists.'

Is it real? A tabloid reports that Hitler is hiding in Bogotá.

Artist Hitler molding the perfect Aryan. 

Hitler's artistic philosophy: Art should not require interpretation or explanation.

Colombia's current and very conservative Inspector General (Procurador) Alejandro Ordoñez participates in a book burning as a young man, according to this newspaper article.

A comparison between Mussollini and conservative Colombian politician Gilbeto Alzate Avedaño.

'The bigger the lie, the more inclined we are to believe it.'

'Power consists of the possibility to determine what is real. Defining reality is political construction.'

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours