Doris Salcedo: Mute Prayer

Flora ars + natura, presents from February 22 through March 29 the exhibition titled Doris Salcedo: Mute Prayer
Initially commissioned by the Portuguese Foundation Calouste Gulbenkian and the Moderna Museet Malmö in Sweden, the exhibition has travelled through several institutions before being presented at Flora.
It was originally conceived with more than 100 pieces, each constituted by two inverted tables and a layer of dirt that allows for grass to grow. It is the result of a process of research and reflection that Salcedo has been involved in since 2004, fueled by the high number of violent deaths of young people in Los Angeles and also by her close connection to the violence that confront the young people in marginal areas of her native Colombia.
One of the mayor referents is the famous Colombian case of False Positives—as they are known in Colombia. Between 2003 and 2009 over 2,500 young individuals from marginal areas were murdered in Colombia at the hands of the Colombian army and listed as guerrilla fighters, despite not having any connection with any guerrilla. It was a time when a lot of incentives had been put in place and cushy jobs promised by the government to those members of the army committed to increase the list of death guerrilla members.
"In Mute Prayer I attempt to convey several experiences and images that are part of the violent nature of the Colombian conflict. I also want to bring together a series of violent events that determine the unstoppable spiral of mimetic and fratricidal violence that distinguishes internal conflicts and civil wars across the world."