"Forms of Freedom" by Carlos Motta

The exhibition titled "Forms of Freedom" by Colombian artist Carlos Motta at the Matucana 100 cultural center will remain open from July 4 to September 2. "Forms of Freedom" consists of works produced during an artistic career spanning approximately 20 years, featuring pieces created in different formats (sculpture, photography, video, and installation) and stories about queer culture and activism. From that perspective, the show attempts to demonstrate that sex and gender politics represent an opportunity to articulate positions against social injustice. The work by Carlos Motta has been developed along two lines: in the first, he delves into political and social events that have occurred in Colombia and Latin America and, in the second, he gives voice to several figures from minority (sexual) groups that attest to issues that have emerged as result of the dominating heteronormative narrative. Speaking about this exhibition, Carlos Motta said, "Since the beginning of my career I have focused on the construction of democracy within the Latin American context, the relationship between US interventionism and imperial notions, geographic and economic control, as well as the idea of democracy as an imposition," and added, "During this process, I have been able to understand that social transformations associated with sex and gender do not belong to a lesser category." Some of the works included in the exhibition are: La buena vida (The Good Life, 2005-2008), a video containing 360 interviews about the movement of pedestrians in twelve cities in the region, from Mexico City to Buenos Aires; Trilogía nefanda (Loathsome Trilogy, 2013-2014), a piece that, through videos, sheds light on the existence of homoerotic pre-Colombian objects; and Hacia una historiografía homoerótica (Towards a Homoerotic Historiography, 2013), consisting of twenty small sculptures cast in gold based on pre-Columbian pieces; among others. The exhibition was organized in collaboration with the Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellín, institution in which the show was presented from November of 2017 to February of this year.