Variation on The unaccounted: a triptych - 31ª Bienal de Sao Paulo

In pictorial art, a triptych is a formal device consisting of three parts that are linked together by hinges. In the recent history of Colombia, the actors of violence (guerrillas, drug trafficking, paramilitaries) have used festivity and the vulnerability of the body, as a celebratory device, not only of life, but also of death. Conceived for the 31st Biennial of Sao Paulo, The unaccounted: a triptych is an installation-archive - articulated as a triptych - in which, in three different spaces, the remains and traces of parties (that have already ended) unfold, and the public are there as a last witness. 

 

From a micro-politic and poetic perspective, Mapa Teatro - Laboratory of Artists, a Bogota based company, explored various festivals and celebrations in Colombia, delving into what is public, private and intimate. The particular way in which violence can appear and be dramatized, and the effects this can have on the body and on subjectivity. Over the period of four years, the company created different experimental artistic devices (performative, theatrical, audiovisual) based on materials, objects and people they encountered during their research and development process: visual and sound archives, documents, testimonies, experts and witnesses becoming images, actions, music; mediaturgies and ethno-fictions.