Seventy Second and Zero – SANTIAGO RIAÑO

Veiled

The beyond has always held a profound fascination for me. I reflect on the veil that both separates us and gives us; on duality as an intrinsic condition of existence; and on how to name that which divides us. This work is a dialogue with a mountain in the páramo range of Bogotá, one that keeps watch through the fog and gives form to its essence through spirits.

Trinity
47.5 x 38 cm

Dead and Matte
110 x 137.5 cm

Sarvastra
96 x 80 cm

Obssesion

“La cumbrera”

La Cumbrera, located thirty minutes from the city, is a reserve situated in the rural area of “El Verjón Bajo”, within the upper basin of the Teusacá River. There is a rock from which much of the city can be observed. A constant murmur can be heard, a sea of chaos: the city breathes below, and at times a distant alarm rises without barely ever breaking the calm of the listener. The site opens like a majestic, V-shaped threshold, a natural fold that both connects and delineates the city and the mountain. My father jokingly called it “seventy second and zero. (A colloquial way to indicate an address in Bogotá)” Today, listening to that name again in all its precision, I like to think of it as a place that precedes and observes. A space in the eastern hills that surround the city, prior to the circunvalar road, marked by the invisible axis of that seventy second street as it points upward toward the place from which the work draws its inspiration.

Dusk II
49.5 x 39.5 cm

The Lady, the Gallinule
and the Light
50 x 66 cm

Virgin
30 x 37 cm

Johnn 14:26
40 x 50 cm

No te preocupes por nosotros,
Busca en el escritorio
40 x 50 cm

Courtines
25 x 25 cm

The order of the
Orquidea
30 x 45 cm

Parpadeo I
110 x 137.5 cm

Parpadeo II
110 x 137.5 cm

Chite y soledad
48 x 38 cm

The Eye and the Siege
48 X 38 cm

Upon a Clod I Saw
100 x 75 cm

Archive Photograph,
skies of La Cumbrera
1990s

Ritual
200 x 150 cm

Archive Photographs of La
Cumbrera, Ritual Space
1990s

30 x 37 cm
Aforismo

Ceramic version
15 x 10 cm

30 x 20.8 cm
Calló en la noche una hoja

Ceramic version15 x 10 cm

40 x 50 cm
Dusk I

Ceramic version
15 x 10 cm

El pasar
Ceramic
15 x 10 cm

Musgo II
Ceramic
15 x 10 cm

Musgo III
Ceramic
15 x 10 cm

Musgo IV
Ceramic
15 x 10 cm

Musgo V
Ceramic
15 x 10 cm

El pasar II
Ceramic
15 x 10 cm

The work explores encounters: that of dusk with night, of the city with the mountain, of the intervened space with nature. It also investigates the passage of time, inscribed in living organisms that slowly cling to and transform inert rock.

Separation
23.5 x 23.5 cm

Courtains
20 x 20 cm

Dual Alignment
25 cm x 19.5 cm

The Páramo Museum Park

The Páramo Museum Park, was an open-air space where artists and scientists come together to contemplate, research, and educate the city about the vital importance of the páramo for Bogotá and its water resources.

Today, that same reserve, although no longer part of the original project, still exists adjacent to the studio and the house where the material development of this work takes place. This complex is now known as “El Umbral” (The Threshold).

Material Research and Process

In 72–0, the wild clay of the mountain and its properties are explored alongside fibers and textures that function as a catalog/herbarium, narrated through color, materiality, and symbol.

Symbolic Canvas

A part of the symbolic work’s body carries the image is a canvas made from the collected clay; which has been segmented, worked, and fired in the workshop.

Organic matter, species and tinctures

The project is supported by rigorous research, not only in ceramics but also in dyes and natural fibers that are representative of and found in La Cumbrera.

Fine Arts Printing and Composition

The production unfolded through an extensive process of testing and selecting papers and printing profiles. Alongside theres two audiovisual explorations that both document the workshop and articulate the core elements of the work from an artistic perspective.

Synchronicities and the Permanence of Being

Life and Cycles in the Mountain

During the time I repeatedly climbed and traversed its organic, ever-changing paths, I encountered different cycles of life that manifested themselves (as is usual) in subtle ways, accompanying my exploration. These encounters enrich these processes and invite reflection.

“EL ARCHIVO”

Photos circa 1990
La Cumbrera
Alberto Riaño

SCATTERED AROUND

One day I decided to dust off an orange box from the old “Kodak 290 Web System,” lost among memories of the ’90s. This was no ordinary box: it did not hold the camera, which I have displayed on a shelf in my room. The mysterious box was filled with neatly organized cardboard envelopes. Today, I call them “The Archive.” Encountering “The Archive” felt like a divine encounter, a moment of profound revelation that made me believe once again in the synchronicities of the universe. Discovering my father’s photographs was like starting a conversation with ghosts. We could understand these memories as specters. The images he captured were identical to those I had taken, despite never having seen them before. The points on the mountain he had explored were the very same I immersed myself in nearly thirty years later. These moments, where past and present connect so perfectly, reinforce my belief in an invisible force that nourishes the process and helps guide these encounters.

Interviews and Conversations

One of the many, and undoubtedly one of the most important conversations regarding the reserve took place within the framework of research with the "Maestro" Edgar Correal (co-founder of the reserve), who shared archives, information, photographs, and previously unpublished memories. This work is also a tribute to his and my father’s dream, and to their vision of the páramo mountains that surround Bogotá.

Exhibition Process in Bogotá

“El Muro Antiguo” (The Old Wall) was an ideal space to house and exhibit the first edition of the Seventy secon and zero work. I sought an old building with a cultural mission that valued memory and preservation. The space required restoration and adaptations, which became an integral part of the exhibition experience.