The series “Contact Shits, fotodiario colombiano” are images of the neighborhood I lived from 2015 to 2017, located in the border of Bogota´s two oldest boroughs: Mártires and Santa Fé.
I took these photos mainly from the windows of my apartment. That zone is in the vicinity of
the infamous “El Bronx de Bogotá”, named like that because the similarities with its N.Y.C. counterpart: arrival of displaced populations and ethnicities, extreme poverty, high level
of violence and illegal trades. It is also the ground of an event that is particular to the
contemporary history of Colombia: social cleansing.
I am a Peruvian artist vetoed in my own country, so I have self-exiled in two occasions
during my life, the later to Colombia. I didn´t establish in that particular neighborhood
having in mind to do a photographic series. It was because of the cheap rentals. But
once there I couldn´t prevent myself from photographing hundreds of trivial little
stories, mostly of homeless people, referred as “desechables” (disposables).
Across my window, a few square meters in the median strip of ave. Caracas is
homeless territory. In many respects they happened to be my neighbors, the-
re was not much distances between us. They were like a mirror.
They do their daily activities under thousands of imperturbable gazes
coming from the buses rumbling by their side. I named each one like
“Clown Hat”, “Luggage”, “Philosopher”, “Darts” an others, referring to
particular behaviors. Example: "Limpieza Social" (Social Cleansing),
a man that patiently selects the tidiest news to wipe himself after
defecating. I found this image to be very telling about the social
cleansing happening in the block. It contradicts official cultural
stereotypes that depicts them as stupid, dirty and sinful by
nature, so deserving to be periodically “cleaned” from
society by killing squads. The title of the series,
"Contact Shits", alludes to him.
.