The project made the artists coexisting for three months with nearly 200 inhabitants of the Guayabito village in Cartago, north of Valle, and pass throughout the rivers populations of La Carbonera, from Caimalito, Pereira and Beltrán. However, the artists called the local community, to build rafts for release in the creek La Nona, which flows into the river Cauca, lit with candles, decorated with large drawings, gifts and flowers representing women holding portraits with the faces of disappeared people from Cauca and historical records of recovered bodies from the river.
Magdalena refers to the woman who lamented for Jesus Christ, who died after the crucifixion. 'Cries more than a Magdalene' is a popular phrase in Colombia, and artists have appropriated the term to symbolize the suffering of these women in grieving for his parents, children, siblings, spouses, relatives and lovers.
In order to finalize the process and pay tribute to the dead and their relatives who suffered the loss, a kind of exhibition-procession was held on November 2, when Catholics celebrate the day of souls or dead. The ferries that came out of Cartago (Valle) to reach La Virginia y Beltrán (Risaralda), as well as representing the hundreds of victims of violence, claimed that the river was no longer a cemetery and instrument of death.
In each ferry, there was a guide on the way explaining how the local people faced situations like the slow flow of the river, floating logs, vultures and streams, the same conditions that for decades were the bodies of hundreds of men, women, adults and children played in the riverbed. As it was an ephemeral art, the procession was recorded on video that turned into a short documentary.
The project presents a way to assist the grieving process of people who have experienced the pain of trying to overcome the loss of their loved ones, which because they had their bodies thrown into the river, they could not make any kind of ritual for them or bury their bodies. This work provided these people with an opportunity to ritualise their farewell through the construction of rafts until the time of peregrination.
The work of the artist has great sensitivity to the situation of violence in Colombia. He lived and points to the current scenario: a country that strives to develop, but still has very deep marks in relation to the insecurity of its people. There is also potential for the work to be something useful, perhaps therapeutic, by involving grieving families in order to unravel this moment and deal with it in a poetic and symbolic form and can respectfully say goodbye to someone who was a victim of something so brutal.
All copyright belongs to Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, Shanghai University.
