Desapariciones forzadas (Forced Disappearances) is the title of the work for which John Aguasaco, an artist and industrial engineer at the National University, received the Fernando Botero award of US100,000 donated by the artist and organized by the Fundación de Jóvenes Artistas (Young Artists Foundation). This work is a forty-five-minute video, which the artist defined as an “exorcism on art” that is in a loop and shows a woman in front of a white background performing an exorcism on art that ends with her disappearance.
Aguasacos’ work becomes the first audiovisual work to receive the highest recognition in the history of this competition.
The jury panel was formed by Cuban curator Gerardo Mosquera, Eva Menzio, director of the Marlborough Gallery, in Monaco, Norman Biron, president of the Canadian branch of the International Association of Art Critics, and the Japanese teacher, researcher, and artist Koji Kinutani. Honorable mentions were awarded to Eduar Moreno, Gabriela Pinilla, Angélica Ortiz, Javier Mauricio Vanegas, Giovanni Sánchez and Samuel Sediles.
The salon exhibiting the works that received the awards will be open from April 21 through May 20 at the Claustro de la Enseñanza in Bogotá.