Nosotros, vosotros, ellos

Nosotros, vosotros, ellos. Memoria del arte en Medellín in the 1970s, by Félix Ángel, published in 2008 and launched in Medellín that same year, is a high-interest book. It was presented late in 2009 in Bogotá by author and historian Álvaro Tirado-Mejía, who wrote the introduction. For the occasion, Ángel¿who financed the book, did the interviews, and took the photographs of the included artists¿wrote a new text, recalling his own 1976 publication and titled Nosotros. Un trabajo sobre los artistas antioqueños¿ which centered on the artists of his generation. With the exception of Francisco Valderrama and Juan Camilo Uribe, both deceased by then¿the latter a few days before the arranged interview¿the artists are the same (Rodrigo Callejas, John Castles, Oscar Jaramillo, Álvaro Marín, Dora Ramírez, Anibal Vallejo, and Marta Elena Vélez), with the inclusion of new names (Javier Restrepo, Ethel Gilmour, Humberto Echavarría, Hugo Zapata, Germán Botero, Alberto Uribe, Armando Londoño, and Ronny Vayda), as well as art-world figures who are not artists (Leonel Estrada, Dario Ruiz, Teresita Peña, and Samuel Vásquez). Tirado-Mejía¿s introduction is very didactic and precise, referring to the intensity of the 1960s and 1970s worldwide, and the intellectual movements in Colombia, including the visual arts. Posing direct and honest questions, Félix Ángel brings forth in his interviewees memories of the decade and of the life of the arts in Medellín, and discretely approaches the topic of what these figures have done, do, and project for the future. Obviously, the answers vary; some are convincing, some are banal or affected, and a handful deserving of careful consideration. The author is right to point out that ¿The content of this work¿ belongs exclusively to the artists and other people interviewed. I limited myself to posing questions and to articulate, in some cases, their declarations without altering the content. Each interviewee also had the opportunity to revise at leisure their answers, not once but several times, which postponed the book¿s publication for longer than I would have wished¿¿ Of the artists included in 1976, only one name remains for the history of Colombian art: John Castles, who remains today one of the country¿s most important sculptors of recent decades and is now a researcher in Colombia¿s art. In the new publication, the salient names appearing along Castles are Ethel Gilmour¿who recently passed away¿Germán Botero, Ronny Vayda, and Hugo Zapata. They must be re-read, and above all, their extensive production needs to be studied. Of great note are the words of Ethel Gilmour, an American artist who lived in Medellín since 1971. When Ángel asks her about the art of today, she says: ¿Much better than before. We were very naïve up until the late 1970s. The word sicario (¿hit man¿) was not even in use. The first time I heard it, I had to ask Jorge (her husband, architect Jorge Uribe) for its meaning. You were spared all of that and probably don¿t understand what I¿m saying. But people continue to speak up, to denounce, to play the flute or the violin, and we have a very courageous press.¿ Germán Botero makes important precisions: ¿¿I learned the history of Modernism in Architecture School. That history was not taught in Art School. At the time, modernity and whatever meaning it had resided in Architecture School and not in art school or in society itself. This is why so many artists of the period chose to study architecture¿ I began to think about leaving Medellín for many reasons, among them because I didn¿t want to become `Medellín¿s best sculptor.¿ Bogotá is still provincial, but it offers a wider field for action¿¿ Ronny Vayda, whose production is the most abundant and outstanding in Antioquia¿s sculpture in recent years, is very lucid in explaining his work: ¿I have gone through several periods, but there has always been a constant in my work related to the idea that every object possesses an inner space. My sear...