Juan Manuel Echavarría

What is the use of a cup?

A project by Juan Manuel Echavarría and Fernando Grisalez

Statement

The title of this series is taken from an etching by Francisco de Goya in The Disasters of War (1810–1820). It gathers traces of the 18 camps I visited with Fernando Grisalez in the Montes de María (departments of Sucre and Bolívar). These camps belonged to the FARC-EP, and most of them had been bombed by the army. Our guides had fought in the war and knew their location.

We spent three years looking for the trails and traces of the fighters who hid in some of those camps situated in the lower parts of Montes de María known as Las Aromeras, an area of dry woods with a great variety of cacti. Later we discovered other camps in the upper range, where streams abound, along with dense vegetation and huge, majestic trees like the wild cashew.

The project continues…

—JME

Installation view