Santiago Díaz Escamilla

Todo hace parte del mundo (Conversación)
Everything is Part of The World (Conversation)

2018

Conversation; Collaborative drawing made on the ground with sticks; Lime; Digital print on Hahnemühle Photo Luster paper, mounted on Aluminum Dibond; Vinyl wall text

To walk through a forest or perhaps 
to believe oneself crossing it, 
lingering, trying to locate the sound 
of a bird hiding in some branch. 
Then bring to mind that veiled and blurred bird. 
Keep walking.
After all, ever since I came to this place, 
that’s all I’ve wanted to do.

After a few walks and conversations, the three of us have agreed on a time and place to share reflections around unanswerable questions. The ground has been previously prepared, and the dialogue about to happen will cover diverse topics such as the formation of the universe, matter, and the physical qualities of what surrounds us.

On November 24, 2016, after an internal conflict that began in the mid-1960s, Colombia’s government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) signed a peace agreement. As a result, the state established 24 temporary settlements called Territorial Spaces for Training and Reincorporation (ETCR) across the country. These sites aimed to provide training and assistance to the former guerrilla ex-combatants for their reincorporation into civilian life.

Todo hace parte del mundo (Everything Makes Part of the World) is a collaboration that takes place at the ETCR Amaury Rodríguez, located in the town of Pondores (La Guajira, Colombia). There, we get to know each other with Ricardo, Jefferson, and Curruco, engaging in dialogues regarding nature, sometimes sitting at their places or wandering around the village’s surrounding forests.
Afterward, I propose a joint discussion, intending to meet as a group for the first time and attempt to gather our thoughts on a diagram sketched on the floor.

On the morning of the meeting’s day, I run into Curruco by chance. He recounts to me the first thing he and other inhabitants did when they arrived at the empty lot that would become Pondores. First, they drew the architectural plan designed by the government on the soil. Then covered it with lime, like the one used on the town’s soccer field, so bad weather would not easily erase it. After listening to his story, I decide to get

a sack of this mineral in the nearby village.
That afternoon, we hold our assembly. We develop ideas and discuss them while drawing up a diagram from previously shared reflections and those spontaneously arising.

Months later, I translate this experience through a text collecting fragments of the conversation. I then transfer it to the wall. Likewise, I  install three photographs that show the different changes occurring on the ground during the gathering: When the land is flat and uniform; next, when we trace lines with sticks; and finally, when we spread lime over the marks to highlight the drawing.


* This work is a co-authorship with the people who made it possible: Ricardo, Jefferson, and Curruco. It was developed during the residency HAWAPI 2018.